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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27048172">little ghost boy|| Reggie [JATP Agere/CGLRE]</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChildishFluff/pseuds/ChildishFluff'>ChildishFluff</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>JATP AGERE/AGE-DREAMING FICS [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Regression/De-Aging, CGLRE, Non-Sexual Age Play, agere, but i'm gonna put this tag so that people actually see this, juke, little!reggie, specifically reggie, teenagers acting like babies, teenagers regressing to toddler ages, there's gonna be more characters but it focuses on the band, this is not ageplayyy, willex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:41:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,991</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27048172</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChildishFluff/pseuds/ChildishFluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Note: so...this fandom doesn't have agere content, hmm? I shall create the first. This is also my first work in the fandom, so please be nice! This isn't Ageplay, or De-aging, or DDLB (with the kinks, they're minors? uh that'd be gross.) If you don't understand Age Regression, or the terms used by the CGLRE community, you might want to learn a little about all that before reading through this.<br/>--<br/>The boy had died, and somehow ended up spending 25 years in some dark room. Changes were happening quickly, and the others seemed to move on before he had the chance to process any of it. So maybe he needed a way to cope with the whole...being dead thing. And maybe that way was rather childish.<br/>But it helped? And plus, he was pretty cute when he got like that. He didn't realize there was a name for it until recently, and now everything seemed to make sense.<br/>He was just a little ghost boy.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex &amp; Julie Molina &amp; Luke Patterson &amp; Reggie, Alex &amp; Luke Patterson &amp; Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex &amp; Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina &amp; Reggie, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Luke Patterson &amp; Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>JATP AGERE/AGE-DREAMING FICS [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991521</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>106</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>216</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Now or Never [Prologue]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A/N: Hey! I'm writing what I believe is the FIRST ever agere story for this fandom! so, please be nice! as the chapters go on, Reggie will discover his headspace more and more, because the main plot is self discovery and learning to trust his friends with a vulnerable part of himself. So the start is kinda slow, but bare with me!</p><p>-Apple</p><p>also! this first chapter is technically a song fic for "now or never", so if you wanna listen to it while reading, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm_0lwrkJNk</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>One, two, three, four!</em>
</p>
<p>The quick noise of two drum sticks crashing together four times rung throughout the studio just before the sounds of instruments collided together as the song began, and the first lines that they knew to well were sung aloud</p>
<p>
  <em>Take off! Last stop, countdown 'til we blast open the top...</em>
</p>
<p>Reggie could never get this song out of his head. It was the last song he preformed before he died. The last song he got to play his bass to while he still had a heartbeat. It <b>hurt </b>to play it again. </p>
<p>But doing things that may hurt you is brave. And bravery can bring you great things. </p>
<p>
  <em>Face first, full charge. Electric hammer to the heart!</em>
</p>
<p>Reggie and Alex started singing in sync with Luke, screaming the lyrics into their microphones like this was going to be their last time ever singing. It almost felt like it was. </p>
<p>
  <em>Clocks move forward, but we don't get older. No....</em>
</p>
<p>The three of them were stuck as seventeen year olds forever, and it felt weird. Being forced to pause and stay in one state of maturity forever was weird. And it felt like things that happened in their past was starting to catch up to them. </p>
<p>
  <em>Kept on climbing, 'til our stars collided...</em>
</p>
<p>And Reggie's past was complicated. Even after death, trauma doesn't disappear. Their singing was full of emotion, because this was hard for them. No one was forcing them to sing this song, they were just in the studio. </p>
<p>And yet, they were screaming a song they thought they'd never hear again, all three of them holding back tears. Tears of anger, tears of nostalgia. But the moment they were reminded of what they had now, everything that death eventually lead them too, those tears would dry.</p>
<p>
  <em>And all the times we fell behind, were just the keys to paradise </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Don't look down, cause we're still rising up right now...</em>
</p>
<p>Reggie liked what he had now. He had new friends! Julie, Willie, Carlos, Ray... Though those last two we're definitely a bit one sided. He cared about them, though. He cared about everyone so much, he always had good intentions when it came to the people he loved. </p>
<p>He was a little oblivious, but he had a heart of gold. </p>
<p>
  <em>And even if we hit the ground, we'll still fly</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Keep dreaming like we'll live forever, but live it like it's now or never!</em>
</p>
<p>Sometimes, things felt like now or never. Reggie worried about what choices to make, whether or not he should take certain risks. He was constantly afraid of losing opportunities, or messing up what he had. Maybe that's why he constantly had the urge to apologize for every little thing. </p>
<p>Because he couldn't handle the thought that someone he cares about might be mad at him. He couldn't stand the idea of losing somebody, because he already lost everything all at once twenty five years ago. </p>
<p>
  <em>Hear the noise, in my head. It's calling out like a voice I can't forget. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>One life, no regrets..</em>
</p>
<p>The only thing he didn't lose when he died was his band mates. <b>His family</b><em>. </em></p>
<p>The people that were there for him when he needed it most, were still there for him. And he couldn't thank them more then he already has for that. </p>
<p>
  <em>Catch up, got no time to catch my breath. </em>
</p>
<p>Everything felt like it was going so fast sometimes. Changes took place, back to back, and nothing ever stopped. Sometimes, it felt like they couldn't catch a breath. But Reggie had found a way to cope with change, with the things he felt, and the childhood he never got to experience. </p>
<p>Even if that way was rather...childish. </p>
<p>Alex and Reggie started singing again, and by now, Alex was tearing up as he sang aloud. Their voices rang throughout the studio. </p>
<p>
  <em>Clocks move faster 'cause it's all we're after now....</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Won't stop climbing, 'cause this is our time, yeah</em>
</p>
<p>They kept singing, emotions ringing through their voice as they screamed out the lyrics. </p>
<p>
  <em>When all the days felt black and white, those were the best shades of my life!</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Don't look down, 'cause we're still rising up right now. And even if we hit the ground...</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>We'll still fly. Keep dreaming like we'll live forever, but live it like it's now or never.</em>
</p>
<p>Maybe they decided to preform this because of what today was. Another birthday passing was just another reminder that they weren't aging. Another reminder that they were dead. </p>
<p><b>Today was Reggie's birthday</b>, and he didn't know how to feel about that. It wasn't like anything changed. He didn't feel older. If anything, he felt dumb for not maturing. </p>
<p>He felt <b>smaller. </b></p>
<p>
  <em>We ain't searching for tomorrow...</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Tomorrow</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>'Cause we got all we need today</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Today</em>
</p>
<p>Reggie replied to Alex's short solos by echoing him, glancing back at the drummer and locking eyes with him as their voices surrounded them. Filling the area with a nostalgic and bittersweet feeling. <em><br/>
</em></p>
<p>
  <em>Living on a feeling that's been running through our veins</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>We're the revolution that's been singing in the rain...</em>
</p>
<p>Reggie proudly sang his solo line, listening as the other two joined in. Even if they were dead, this felt right. Playing together, with these boys who he's known since middle school, was exactly what he wanted to do. And now he had Julie too, who he didn't meet until more recently, but he cared about her just as much. </p>
<p>
  <em>Don't look down. 'Cause we're still rising up right now</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>And even if we hit the ground, we'll still fly</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Keep dreaming like we'll live forever, but live it like it's now or never....</em>
</p>
<p>Their music seemed to sway around the room, the emotion of the environment shifting from bittersweet to hopeful. They were talented, and they all loved each other. </p>
<p>What else could they want? </p>
<p>
  <em>It's now or never!</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Now or never.....</em>
</p>
<p>Nothing. All they needed was love, and their music, and they'd figure out the rest. </p>
<p>They could trust each other with anything. </p>
<p>But sometimes, like when Reggie was hold back a huge...or rather, little secret, it suddenly became easy to forget that. </p>
<p>He'd remember soon enough. </p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Toy Cars and Little Rockstars [Chapter One]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi! this a warning for Reggie crying, being scared, and feeling guilty for small things. I'm not sure if that needs a warning, but just know that there's an emotional little in this chapter, but he also giggles and plays a lot so it evens out!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie hated having to hide this part of himself. </p><p>The weirdest part was, he might not of <em>had</em> to hide it, but he still did. He knew that his band mates were some of the most supportive people on the planet, but he was so afraid that they'd hate him for this. </p><p>They'd call him weird and Julie would kick him out of the studio. Or worse, she'll kick him out of the band and <em>replace</em> him. </p><p>His eyes glossed over at that thought, and he felt like closing in on himself. "Reg? Are you okay?" Luke interrupted his anxious thoughts, causing him to glance up and nod his head quickly. </p><p>They were all sitting around the table in the studio. Alex was in the chair, Luke and Julie were on the couch. Reggie sat on the floor, and he had zoned out of the conversation in favor of letting anxious thoughts bounce around his head and terrorize him. </p><p>Luke's arm was around Julie, and Alex wore one of Willie's t-shirts. He wished he had someone who cared about him like that. </p><p>At the perfect moment, Luke patted the seat on the other side of him. "Come on, it's not like you haven't cuddled with me before." It was almost like he could read his mind. Luke didn't have that ability, of course, but he did know his friend well.</p><p>Reggie didn't reply verbally, glancing at Julie, who moved her head in a quick 'come on' nod. Luke saw that he was looking at Julie and spoke up again. "I have two arms. I can cuddle two people." he assured. Reggie hummed, still not speaking aloud as he stood up and climbed to sit next to him. Luke wrapped his arm around his shoulder, and Reggie leaned back onto his arm and the couch. </p><p>He felt much more comfortable with the extra affection, but he was still anxious. Maybe it was because that thing was happening. </p><p>Age regression, as the internet put it. When he'd feel like a kid again, and he couldn't do anything about it. </p><p>There was very few times where he'd willingly act that way, and it was always when he was alone, or just so excited about something that he didn't <em>want</em> to act like a mature teenager.</p><p>The point was, the majority of the time, he had no say in when it happened, and he'd have to push it down until he could get somewhere where he could be by himself. He had a few to go places, random locations that the boys could probably find him if they <em>needed</em> to, but they wouldn't come looking unless they were super worried. Just like him, they went off and did whatever sometimes. </p><p>That 'whatever' time was a second to step away from the real world and just breathe. A second to be in whatever their happy place was. </p><p>For Luke, that was time writing music with Julie, and hanging out in magical-feeling places for inspiration. For Alex, that was time with Willie, and going to calm places to get away from anxiety. </p><p>For Reggie, it was age regressing and playing bass, and hanging out in places that reminded him of the better parts of his childhood. Of course he had other ways to deal with stress, and he honestly wished this specific coping skill would go away, but it didn't seem like it would be any time soon. </p><p>Pushing it down felt bad. He felt guilty for not being open about it in the first place, he'd feel stressed because pushing something like that down is hard. He wanted to be held, and told that this thing he did was completely okay. </p><p>That he could be as little as he wanted. </p><p>Because when he tried to tell himself that, it didn't seem to work. </p><p>He cleared his mind of anxious thoughts to the best of his ability, taking a breath, doing his best to keep himself in the mindset of an adult, and listening in as Alex rambled about Willie. </p><p>This couldn't be to hard, <em>could it?</em></p><p>--</p><p>Reggie assumed that if the others ever found out about this, it'd be because he couldn't push down his regression and he'd slip up. Not Luke walking in on one of his special safe places while he fell into his littlespace. </p><p>Before we get there, maybe we should talk about this specific safe place. This little abandoned building, not to far from Julie's school, used to be a shop the band would hang out at. He couldn't tell you why it had been closed down, they left the majority of the furniture inside and there wasn't any pest infestations. </p><p>He figured that he'd eventually steal Julie's computer and research why the little 'CD Sundayz' shop had been closed. The record and CD shop was the best mom-and-pop store around for purchasing music. And whenever they closed the place down, they left a fair amount of the music on the shelves. </p><p>So, Reggie found a CD player, and he would play the music and just relax. Right now, relaxing was sitting on the carpet and playing pretend with toy cars he had taken back when Carlos was cleaning out his older toys and told his dad he was getting rid of them. </p><p>Reggie remembered being so shy to ask Julie if he could have them. He also remembered her confused glance, her soft voice muttering, "You don't have to ask, no one else wants them." before picking up the box of toy cars and shoving it into his hands before her dad came back into the room.</p><p>One thing he never understood was why she never asked why, she just handed them over. She figured it was just a Reggie thing, something random he liked, and left it at that. </p><p>"You," Reggie plucked a dark blue car from the top of the plastic box, "and you..." he trailed off, biting his lip as he dug into the container for his favorite red car, "is gonna race!" he giggled, speaking to no one. </p><p>Playing by himself wasn't the funnest thing in the world, but it'd be even worse if he played in complete silence. He crawled across the floor, not being bothered with the idea of walking right now. He sat down, aligning the two cars in front of him. He aimed the cars to the box of the rest of the boy cars, deciding that that was the end of the track. </p><p>"Three, two, one!" he pushed them as hard as he could, making a sound to represent a car starting. He watched the cars move forward, listening to the plastic-against-plastic crash of the red car hitting the box. </p><p>He bounced in place, giggling and clapping. "Red won!" he went to stand up when he heard a shuffling sound in the direction of the door. The walls were a dark blue color, but parts of the wall had one of those stereotypical "90's" patterns on the wall, with the brightly colored shapes and background. Part of the floor, where Reggie was sitting, was a light blue carpet. The rest of it was white tile, with speckles of gray in it. </p><p>He saw Luke standing on the tile closest to the door, his arms crossed as he stood with a knowing glance and smirk. Reggie's excitement died down immediately, and he got scared. Immediately, his thoughts jumped to '<em>he hates me</em>', and '<em>he's gonna tell everyone</em>'. </p><p>His eyes teared up and he backed away, before Luke even got a word out. "Don't be scared, Reg. You're okay," he came closer slowly, bending own and taking the green car in his hands when he was close enough. Reggie whimpered at that, pouting. He held back the urge to make grabby hands for it. </p><p>"You like this little toy?" he held it up as he got closer, dropping down to sit next to him. </p><p>Reggie wondered why he was being so calm. Why he wasn't asking a million questions. Why he wasn't laughing at him. </p><p>
  <em>Why he wasn't judging him. </em>
</p><p>Reggie hummed, with a light nod. Luke slowly took Reggie's hand, which was behind used to hug himself, and placed the toy car in it. "What were you doing?" he questioned, still speaking softly. He didn't know exactly what was happening, but he was able to figure out that he was in a vulnerable spot at the moment. </p><p>This is when Reggie realized that Luke had only seen part of that. He must've teleported in at some point a bit before Reggie heard the shuffling sound. How had he missed the familiar sound of a ghost warping reality as a form of transportation? </p><p>Reggie held the toy car to his chest, blinking and letting tears run down his face. He wished that he had a stuffed animal to hug, that would probably help right now. "Doing nothing," he mumbled out a lie, and Luke gave him a look. </p><p>"You can trust me, you know that, right?" Luke spoke again. "We're you...playing?" he asked, pulling together what he heard when he teleported, and Reggie's current soft and babyish actions. Reggie's cheeks burned and he nodded hesitantly, looking up with his with glassy eyes as if he expected him to be mad. </p><p>"Why'd you come all the way out here to play with some toy cars? Everyone's been looking for you," Luke informed. Reggie felt a sinking feeling in his chest, and he felt bad. </p><p>"m' sorry, din mean tos worry you-" he mumbled, cutting himself off with a sniffle. </p><p>"Don't be sorry, buddy. I'm just saying, you could've told the band about...this," he vaguely motioned to him. "Instead of hiding out in an old record shop." </p><p>Reggie gasped, "Like da shop. Me an' yous used to come here!" he giggled, looking around. He had done a decent job of keeping it clean, and the lights still worked. It wasn't the most ideal place to hang out, but it did work pretty well. Lifers couldn't get in because the door was boarded up, so he could be by himself. </p><p>"Yeah, we did. This place was awesome back in the nineties." Luke looked around, like Reggie had, before focusing back on the boy. "But you didn't have to hide from us. You like doing childish things sometimes, that's whatever. Alex and I already know that you have a childish personality, it's completely fine."</p><p>Reggie realized that he wasn't completely understanding what was happening. To some extent, Luke really just thought he was acting childish for fun. Yeah, some age regressors do that, and he knew that was okay too. But that's not what was happening with him. </p><p>He was in the mental state of a five year old, and Luke didn't understand that yet. </p><p>Reggie tried to think about how he could explain this while practically a toddler, pouting in frustration. He pointed to himself with the hand that wasn't holding the car. Luke seemed confused but he played along. Nonverbal communication was something that was easier then talking at points, but he's never really had to use it, because he always regressed alone.</p><p>"You're?" </p><p>Reggie nodded, before tapping his head. "Head?" </p><p>Reggie smiled, shaking his head. "Brain?" </p><p>His smile got bigger, but he refused that response. "Mental- You're mentally?" he guessed. Reggie hummed with a nod. </p><p>He then held his two hands close together, like he was going to clap, but left some space in between them. "Small? Tiny? Little?" he guessed all at once. Reggie nodded. </p><p>"You're mentally little?" </p><p>Reggie shied down, the giggly smiley baby gone for the time being. "Like...you're thinking like a kid would? How's that even possible?" </p><p>Reggie whined. He had hard enough of a time explaining that he was little at all, and Luke still didn't understand it. "You're okay! When will you be...mentally 'big' again?" he asked. </p><p>Reggie shrugged. "Well, when you are, will you talk to me about this and explain it to me?" Luke figured that a kid wouldn't be able to explain this well, and came to a quick compromise. Reggie thought for a moment before nodding. </p><p>"You don't like talking much, do you?" he said. </p><p>Reggie spoke in the babyish toddler voice. "Voice sounds little." he mumbled. </p><p>"But that's okay. You're mentally a kid, right?" he paused for confirmation. Reggie nodded, "You're probably going to sound and act like one too. Now, I was supposed to find you and take you back to the studio-" he was cut off by Reggie whining and shaking his head quickly.</p><p>"Question answered, I won't be doing that..." he trailed off, thinking. "Can you be good and keep playing here? I want to tell them that you're okay, and then I'll come back."</p><p>Reggie frowned. The idea of being alone seemed disappointing, now that he had somewhat experienced playfulness with someone who was seemingly accepting. "Come back?" he held out his pinky. </p><p>Luke had the urge to coo at that, smiling in an amused way. "Promise," he latched his pinky onto his for a moment before pulling away. He stood up, ruffling Reggie's hair. The boy giggled at that, his nose scrunching up.</p><p>"I'll be back, <b><em>Li</em></b><em><b>ttle Rockstar</b></em>." </p><p>Reggie smiled at the nickname, watching as he poofed out. If Luke reacted well, he wondered if Alex and Julie would too. It was still a scary thought, telling them. But with the reassurance that Luke gave him, it but the idea that being mentally little sometimes was okay in his head. And it helped him feel more comfortable </p><p>Luke didn't completely understand why this was happening, or how it worked. But he did know enough to understand that he was basically a kid right now, and that he shouldn't have to be left alone to play. So he <em>was</em> coming back. </p><p>He just needed to make sure everyone else knew he was safe, too. <em>Then</em>, he'd come back to watch over this childlike version of Reggie.</p><p>
  <em>Maybe he'd even play with Reggie, and his toy cars. </em>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>leave feedback in the comments if you want, and kudos are also very much appreciated! I really hoped you guys liked this chapter!<br/>If you decide to leave a comment, here's a question you an consider for feedback: Do you think I'm writing the characters fairly in-character? And, what's your favorite part of this chapter?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Apologies and Pet Names [Chapter 2]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Reggie wakes up the following morning and teaches Luke a bit about age regression. He regresses again and Luke offers to play with him, since no one else is in the studio that morning.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have so many age regression fan fictions ongoing right now, so please go easy on me if I don't update enough. I hope you like the chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie rubbed at his eyes, snuggling into the pillow he was laying on. He was up in the loft. </p><p>He heard a chuckle, "You're awake. That's good, I have to poof us here because you fell asleep back at the CD shop." Reggie's recognized Luke's voice, sitting up.He flushed darkly when he realized that he hadn't been laying on a pillow, but rather, Luke's chest. </p><p>"I-i'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"</p><p>Luke smiled at him, causing him to pause his statement. "I'm not mad at you, I don't care. Are you feeling okay?" he asked. </p><p>"If that's code for 'are you big again', then yeah." he smiled weakly, leaning back into a pillow that <em>wasn't</em> Luke.  </p><p>"Okay..." he trailed off, biting on his lip in thought as he attempted to figure out how to start this conversation. </p><p>"Thank you." Reggie blurted out after a few moments of silence. Luke seemed confused. </p><p>"For what?"</p><p>"For being nice about the whole 'mentally a kid sometimes' thing. It's something I was scared about telling anyone, and you found out and reacted well when I thought you weren't going to... I don't know, it helped a lot." he hummed, staring up at the ceiling as if it was the most entertaining thing in the world. </p><p>"Of course! You're not hurting anyone, and it seems to make you happy. I don't mind it..." he paused before speaking again. "I kinda get the idea, but could you teach me about it? What you know, anyways?" </p><p>Reggie sat up, looking at him. "Oh- you really wanna know more?" he asked. </p><p>"I already said that I did!" he reminded. </p><p>"Oh! Yeah...right. Okay, where should I start?" he wondered out loud, looking in front of him. He had just woken up, and now he was being asked to teach his friend about something he was still figuring out himself. </p><p>"Maybe you can tell me how it works...why it happens." Luke offered. </p><p>"It's called age regression. It's a headspace I go into where I'm mentally younger. Like, a toddler..." he trailed off hesitantly, biting on his lip.</p><p>"How old <em>exactly</em>?" Luke seemed skeptical.</p><p>"I can be anywhere from a baby to like, five or six." he blushed, avoiding his eyes again. </p><p>"Awe, little reggie's <em>just a baby</em>?" he teased. </p><p>Reggie felt like whining and pouting until Luke apologized for teasing him, but he just rolled his eyes and kept talking. He <em>just</em> came out of littlespace. He didn't need to fall back in because Luke was being a meanie. </p><p>"Yeah, okay, whatever. And it happens when I get stressed, or anxious, or overwhelmed. It helps, a lot actually. According to the internet, it's like a coping mechanism for that stuff. And a way to deal with not getting a peaceful childhood or whatever," he locked eyes with Luke, who nodded slowly in an understanding way. </p><p>"I get it then. You're a kid sometimes <em>now</em> because you weren't able to be one peacefully back then due to your family. And if it helps you, then I'm okay with it, like I said." </p><p>Reggie smiled, relief washing over him. Luke got it. He understood what was happening, and he was okay with it. Luke continued to ask questions, letting Reggie ramble about whatever because he kept getting off track. </p><p>"Do you use like, baby things? Like pacifiers and stuffed animals?" Luke eventually asked. </p><p>"I would, but y'know, I figured you guys would be pretty weirded out if you found baby stuff throughout the studio." he joked, but Luke gave him a serious look and he answered honestly. "Yeah...I would like more toys, and stuffed animals would be nice, but I don't really know how to get any in a way that Julie wouldn't find out about. I don't know about pacifiers though." he admitted. </p><p>"Julie's chill, she'd support this. You should talk to her, and Alex! That way you don't have to hide this anymore." he suggested. </p><p>Reggie quickly shook his head. "To scary." he refused. </p><p>"Don't you think that you'll talk to them eventually, though?" </p><p>Reggie shrugged. "maybe." </p><p>"<em>Reggie</em>," Luke gave him this look, that made him feel guilty for not telling him sooner. "You should at least consider telling them, okay? But, I'll drop it for now."</p><p>Reggie nodded a bit, bringing his thumb to his lip and biting on his nail. </p><p>"How often do you regress?" Luke asked, reaching over beside him and grabbing a beanie. It was the one he had been wearing yesterday. As Reggie started talking, he pulled and adjusted it over his head. </p><p>"Um...kinda often? I come close to it happening a lot and then kinda push it down, because m' with you guys a lot." his voice reduced to a mumble, and he nervously glanced at Luke. </p><p>"Oh...well now that I know, maybe I could cover for you! Like, help you sneak out so you can.. do <em>that</em> more.." he offered with hesitancy. </p><p>"You'd do dat?" Reggie cursed himself for the slight baby talk, the look on his face switched from nervousness to hopefulness. </p><p>"Of course, if it's possible then I will! I just need you to let me know when you're regressing somehow, and I'll try my best to get you away."</p><p>"Mkay," Reggie muttered, hugging himself a bit. "Thank you."</p><p>"Are you- are you regressing again?" Luke asked, looking him up and down. His voice was slightly babyish, he was hugging himself, and he was not to far away from sucking his thumb. Reggie shrugged a bit. Luke gave his a skeptical look, and he shyly nodded. </p><p>"Awe..do you wanna play, like we did yesterday? Alex is with Willie and Julie's supposed to be at Flynn's house." Luke offered. </p><p>Reggie still seemed nervous. "Don't wanna." He shook his head defiantly </p><p>"Are you sure that you don't want to?" Luke asked. </p><p>"I don't wanna!" Reggie whined, almost shouting. He huffed, shifting to face away from him. </p><p>Luke dropped his teasing smile, seemingly concerned for the boy. "Reg, what's up?" he spoke softly, tapping on his shoulder to convince him to turn back around and face him. On the other side, Reggie's face took over a guilty pout, due to him feeling bad for shouting at Luke. </p><p>He shook his head lightly again, pulling his shoulder away from Luke's hand. "Rockstar-"</p><p>Luke was cut off when Reggie quickly turned around and basically jumped onto him, trapping him into a hug. He buried his head in his chest and squeezed him tightly. He almost pulled away and apologized, but Luke tightly wrapped his arms around him once he realized what had happened. </p><p>"You're okay, sweetheart. You're completely safe with me," he promised,swaying a bit in his spot, loosening up his arms after a few moments. Reggie pulled away after a bit, wiping at his eyes. "Why're you crying, Rockstar?" </p><p>"M' sorry! Didn't mean ta yell," he bit at his lip in a nervous way, like he expected Luke to be mad at him. Luke's face softened more, giving him a look of sympathy. </p><p><em>Why</em> was he so good at this? </p><p>"No one is mad at you, baby. Don't worry, you just got a little upset, hmm?" </p><p>Reggie nodded a bit, seemingly confused. Luke <em>wasn't</em> mad at him. But he had yelled? </p><p>His parents hated it when he did that. He'd get in trouble. He didn't like getting in trouble. </p><p>"Not mad?" he mumbled, looking up at him with nervous eyes. Luke shook his head.</p><p>"No, Reg. I'm <em>not</em> mad at you." he assured. </p><p>Reggie didn't seem convinced. "You were scared because you didn't want anyone else to walk in, and I pushed it so you got upset. It's understandable, and I'm not mad."</p><p>"Mkay..." he trailed off. He shifted in his place. "Can..um.." he trailed off. Luke seemed like he wanted to know what he was asking for, silently urging him to keep going. </p><p>"Play?" he finished after a pause, looking up at him with still nervous, but also hopeful eyes. Luke's face broke out into a smile, and he reached beside him for Reggie's little plastic box. </p><p>
  <em>"Of course, Little Rockstar." </em>
</p><p>--</p><p>"Luke, look!" Reggie pushed his little green car across the floor. Luke sat in a crossed leg position on the floor across the room from the little. Reggie had aimed the toy car in Luke's direction, an it quickly zoomed across the studio and into Luke's leg. </p><p>"Ouch!" he pulled his leg back and picked up the car. Luke set up the car so that it'd go in Reggie's direction, and he glanced up to see Reggie pouting. </p><p>"Didn't mean to hit you! You okays?" he asked, seemingly worried for the mentally older band member. </p><p>Luke smiled at him, chuckling a bit. "Darling, a little toy isn't gonna hurt me much. I'm fine," he looked back down at the toy, straightening it out a bit so that it'd actually make it to Reggie, instead of zooming past him. "You ready?" he asked. </p><p>Reggie nodded, bringing his thumb to his lip and biting on his nail. Luke smirked, pushing it with a lot of power. Reggie barely managed to stop it with his hand before it hit his leg. He giggled, his nose scrunching up. Mindlessly, he let his thumb sit in his mouth and he sucked on it lightly. </p><p>"Baby, I don't think you should do-" Luke paused. He was gonna say something about that being unhealthy for his teeth. But they're dead, so he didn't know if that mattered. It was to late, Reggie had already pulled his thumb out of his mouth, pouting lightly. </p><p>"m' sorry!" he said quickly, closing in on himself in the same nervous way he did earlier. </p><p>How many times was he going to say "I'm sorry" before he realized that Luke wasn't going to get mad?</p><p>"You're okay, bud." Luke stood up, walking across the room and moving to sit down next to him. He wrapped his arm around Reggie's shoulder. In response, Reggie laid his head on his shoulder. As soon as he realized what he did, he went to pull his head up, but Luke interrupted his actions.</p><p>"You can put your head there," he assured. Reggie hesitantly put his head back down, mumbling a thank you. After a few moments, Luke spoke again. "Do you wanna go on a walk or something? Just you and me?"</p><p>Reggie shrugged, bringing his thumb back to his lip. He saw Luke looking at his and pulled it away quickly with an apologetic look. </p><p>"I'll take you to the park!" Luke decided, distracting him from any sort of guilt he had in the moment. His face lit up and he smiled. "There's this one that no one goes to for some reason, but it's really cool! If you want, and you're good, we can go." he offered. </p><p>Reggie nodded his head quickly, straightening up an lifting his head off of his shoulder. "Let me leave a note for Julie, just so she knows we're safe." Reggie looked nervous. </p><p>"I'll tell her that we went to the beach or something, don't worry." he assured, ruffling his hair before standing up and walking over to the piano, where his song-writing notebook sat. He opened it, picking up a pencil and scribbling down a note. </p><p>He left it sitting open so that Julie would be able to see the note, setting the pencil down and turning around so that he was facing Reggie. </p><p>"You ready to go, rockstar?"</p><p>Reggie nodded. Luke approached him, reaching his hand out for the other to take. </p><p>Reggie took it, letting Luke do the work of poofing them out to whatever park they were going to. He was excited, he had never gone out and done anything like this before.</p><p>He hoped that it'd be fun. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Slides and Song Lyrics [Chapter Three]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Reggie plays at the park, Luke sings to Reggie, and they watch movies together.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie absolutely loved the park. There was no one there, so he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing him, but it was also really fun. The thing he liked the most was the swings, though Luke had to help push him. </p>
<p>"You wanna go down the slide?" Luke asked. Reggie nodded, climbing up the metal steps and going across the playground's bridge. He climbed up a little ladder and made it to the tall slide. </p>
<p>"This is weally high," he pouted, looking down to where Luke was, on the ground. It really wasn't that high up, he was just in the mindset of a toddler, and he got anxious easily. That combination resulted in him being scared. </p>
<p>"You're okay, I promise. I'm right here at the bottom to catch you!" Luke assured. Reggie hesitated, biting on his lip. </p>
<p>"<em>Lukeee</em>," he whined after a few moments. </p>
<p>"Hold on, baby." Luke knew he wasn't gonna get anywhere with this, so he went around the side of the playground, going up the steps and taking the same path Reggie had before. He appeared behind him. "Sit down," he instructed. </p>
<p>Reggie did so, trusting him. He sat on the entrance of the slide, holding onto the bar so that he couldn't slide down. Luke sat behind him, adjusting himself so that he toddler-like boy was in between his legs. He wrapped his arms around his waist. "You ready?" he asked. </p>
<p>Reggie hummed, still nervous. Luke reached up, pulled his hands down from the bar softly, before wrapping one arm back around Reggie's waist. With the other, he grabbed the side of the yellow slide in front of them and pulled them forward to gain momentum. </p>
<p>He quickly let his other arm fly to his waist. They slid down the slide at a decent pace, and Reggie was giggling by the time they got to the bottom. "Did you have fun?" Luke asked, removing his arms from Reggie to let him up. He didn't get up, though.</p>
<p>Instead, he turned around and hugged him while Luke while he was still sitting at the base of the slide. Like earlier, Luke hugged him back when he realized what was happening. "yeah, lotsa fun! Go again?" he asked, pulling away with a pleading pout that Luke couldn't say not too. </p>
<p>"Of course, Little Rockstar." He held his hand out. "Lead the way!"</p>
<p>Reggie laughed, pulling him up and dragging him around the playground equipment. </p>
<p>Today was going to be a fun day. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"Buddy, I think we need to head home soon." </p>
<p>Luke and Reggie stayed at the park basically all day. Reggie was currently sitting on a swing, kicking hims legs out in an attempt to swing as high as he could. Of course, Luke was really the one doing the work, but he let Reggie think he did it with little help. </p>
<p>"I don't wanna," Reggie pouted, the swing slowing down a bit. </p>
<p>"We've been here for a while. And, I have to work on songs back in the studio." </p>
<p>"No more playing wif me?" Reggie seemed disappointed about that, letting Luke stop the swing. Luke's heart broke then and there. </p>
<p>"No, no, no! You're gonna hang out with me <em>while</em> I write music." he explained. </p>
<p>"Oh!" Reggie smiled. "Mkay." </p>
<p>"So...you ready to head home?" Luke questioned. Reggie huffed, jumping off the swing. He seemed...annoyed. "Cheer up, baby. If you don't tell Julie, we can steal her computer and watch cartoons!" he offered, holding out his hand. He had whispered the last part of his statement as if it was a secret, leaning close to his ear. </p>
<p>Reggie seemed content with that compromise, taking his hand and letting Luke poof them home. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Reggie sat on the couch in the studio, swinging his feet above the ground as movies played off of Julie's laptop. He had missed a lot of kids movies during the twenty five year gap, so it felt like he had so much to watch!</p>
<p>He started with the Disney princess movies (He liked Cinderella the most, but that mostly had to do with her pretty dress.), then he watched some of the Barbie movies. Luke didn't question his "girly" choices, letting him watch whatever he deemed 'kid appropriate'. </p>
<p>Luke sat in the chair next to the couch, messing with his guitar and writing down cord progressions and lyrics. He checked on Reggie every few minutes, asking him simple questions about the movie he was watching, if he liked them of not. </p>
<p>At one point, he was messing with cords and lightly singing lyrics he thought fit, and realized that Reggie's attention had shifted to him. Luke paused, looking over at him. "Why aren't you watching the movie?"</p>
<p>"Pretty voice." Reggie mumbled simply, watching him expectedly. He was waiting for him to keep going. Luke's smiled widely, his heart basically melting at how cute Reggie was when he was like this. </p>
<p>"You like me singing?" he questioned, settling his hands back on the guitar strings, preparing to play something for him. He tried to think of every kiddish song he knew, before deciding to just improvise and play something he'd create on the spot. He was pretty good at that. </p>
<p>Reggie nodded, humming. "Like it." he confirmed. </p>
<p>Luke started playing, watching Reggie's eyes fill with wonder, the movie long forgotten. </p>
<p>
  <em>Lullabies and shy babies, I promised that I'd never leave</em>
</p>
<p>Reggie seemed so entranced by this little song, swinging his feet as he watched him preform, just for him. </p>
<p>
  <em>I'll hold your hand, if you hold mine. I'll sing you soft lullabies. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>I'll take you to the park and push you on the swings, </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>as long as you promise me one thing</em>
</p>
<p>He played for a little bit, before falling into a chorus. Reggie continued to silently watch, looking up at Luke with wide eyes. </p>
<p>
  <em>Don't let go.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>I promise to hold you close. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Let me see who you are, don't care if you have scars</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>I know you have a soft heart</em>
</p>
<p>He stopped there, grabbing his pencil and jotting those lyrics down. He knew it probably wouldn't be a song for the band, but it was still something he decided he'd keep working on later. Reggie playfully clapped. </p>
<p>"Go back to watching your movie, sweetie. You can always listen to me sing later." Luke told him, flipping a page in his notebook. Reggie nodded, focusing back in on the screen for a few moments before shyly speaking up. </p>
<p>"Watch wif me?" he asked, speaking softly. </p>
<p>"Oh...uh, sure. Give me a minute though, okay?" </p>
<p>Reggie nodded. Luke quickly wrote down whatever lyric was in his head, messing with his guitar for a few minutes before jotting down one last thing in his notebook. He set both the notebook and the guitar to the side, coming to sit next to Reggie. </p>
<p>"What're you watching?" he asked. </p>
<p>"Tangled," Reggie told him. Luke nodded, wrapping his arm around his shoulders. Reggie leaned into him, cuddling into his side mindlessly. Once he realized what he did, he looked up at look to make sure that it was okay. Luke simply reached over with his free hand, ruffling his hair, and pulling him closer a bit, confirming silently that he was completely okay with the affection. </p>
<p>Luke didn't know why he felt so compelled to take care of him. It's not like he was asked to, or anything. He just felt like it was right. </p>
<p>Plus, he liked having Little Reggie around. He was sweet, and knowing that this behavior <em>helped</em> him made Luke happy. He had a way to deal with the lack of a childhood. A way to cope with the leftover effects of a abusive family. And if he could help with that, then he wanted too. </p>
<p>But past all of that, he wondered why he was actually good at this. He never really had experience with kids, but he always seemed to know what to do with Reggie. Maybe that wouldn't always apply, but so far, he was doing a pretty decent job at handling him, and doing what he could to help. </p>
<p>As they watched the movie, Reggie dozed off, cuddled into his side.</p>
<p>This day, occupied by park tips, singing, and watching movies, was the start of a sweet and innocent relationship between Luke and Reggie. Reggie would teach Luke more about age regression whenever he got the chance too, Luke would occupy and play with Reggie while he regressed, and Luke would help him get away if he started slipping in a situation where he didn't feel comfortable. </p>
<p>Everything went over smoothly for a while. </p>
<p>But things had to change eventually, didn't they?</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A/N: I'm sorry for the ominous and spooky ending. No, you don't get an explanation. Just wait for the next chapter. Anyways, please lmk if you liked this chapter/give feedback, it helps a lot!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Hide and Seek [Chapter Four]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Reggie and Luke play hide and seek, Reggie breaks a rule, and Julie finds them.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>warning for Reggie crying, but its okay bc fluff also ensues.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Luke had been searching for Reggie for at least ten minutes. </p>
<p>He knew that was the whole point of hide and seek, but it genuinely scared him when he couldn't find him! And Reggie was pretty good at curling up in small spaces and hiding away. </p>
<p>"Baby?" He called out. </p>
<p>He walked by Julie's room, pausing. "You're not supposed to be in there..." he paused, taking a breath before deciding to check anyways. </p>
<p>Of course, he found Reggie sitting on Julie's bed. "Buddy, you know Julie would kill you if she was the one to find you in here, right?" he gave him a 'you should know better' look, approaching him and sitting next to him on the bed. </p>
<p>"But you find me! Just hiding..." he said innocently. </p>
<p>"Yeah, but this room is off limits, okay?"</p>
<p>Reggie regressed quite a bit now that Luke had offered to take care of him. They'd usually go hang out in some empty place and play games until Reggie was big again or got sleepy. Luke stopped trying to push Reggie to tell the others because he knew it wasn't doing anything but upsetting him. When Reggie was ready, he'd help him do it. </p>
<p>But for now, he'd help him keep him secret. As long as he could, anyways. </p>
<p>Reggie pouted nodding. "Sorry." he mumbled. </p>
<p>"You're okay, rockstar. Julie's not home right now so you weren't hurting anything, but if she was she would've been pretty upset."</p>
<p>Luke knew it would've been a disaster if she caught Reggie in her room, especially while he was regressed. While he didn't like yelling in general, yelling at him would probably result in tears and anxiety.</p>
<p>"Mad at me?" The regressor looked down, hugging himself a bit. </p>
<p>"But she's not home! So no one is mad at you!" he assured, quickly shifting the conversation once he realized what he insinuated. Reggie looked up, humming. </p>
<p>"Mkay. No coming in here." he said aloud, as if reminding himself. </p>
<p>"That's right, baby. Let's go play another round, okay?" </p>
<p>Reggie didn't get the chance to respond, because they heard the front door open, and quick footsteps up the stairs. Reggie took Luke's hand quickly, whimpering. Luke was shocked by two things.  First of all, Julie was gonna see Reggie regressed for the first time. And also, <em>how</em> did Julie get up the stairs so fast? </p>
<p>He didn't even process what was happening, and it was to late to poof them out by the time he did. </p>
<p>"Why are you in my room?" she opened her door, her eyes immediately falling on the two boys hold hands on her bed. She looked around behind her, before entering the room fully and shutting the door behind her. She let her bag slide off of her arms and drop by the door, crossing her arms and looking between the two boys for an explanation. </p>
<p>"Julie! Hi...I thought you were going to Flynn's house after school?" Luke asked, trying to redirect the conversation. He squeezed Reggie's hand in reassurance, because the poor boy currently looked so scared. </p>
<p>"She had a thing," she corrected. "Why are you in here? I told you, it's off limits unless I let you in here." Luke's redirection only lasted a few seconds. Reggie stayed quiet, wanting to hide away. It was so hard to repress regression when he had already slipped. </p>
<p>"Sorry, Jules. We were doing something and I came in here..." Reggie had a hard time keeping his voice level, and "big", but he tried his best. "Luke already told me that I shouldn't have and we were gonna leave!" he explained, quickly. He looked down again, pulling his hand away from Luke's. </p>
<p>Luke seemed concerned. Reggie told him that repressing regression wasn't good for him and he hated to see him feel like he had to do that. </p>
<p>"What were you doing though? What reason is there to come in here?" she asked. Reggie started to close in on himself, casting his eyes down. In the eyes of five year old him, she was gonna start yelling any minute now.</p>
<p>He did something <em>bad </em>and now she was <b>mad</b> at him. "I'm sorry!" he said, his voice falling into that babyish pitch before he could stop himself. He shut his mouth quickly, looking around him to see Luke's face of pity, and Julie's face of confusion. </p>
<p>He needed to get out of there.</p>
<p>So he did. He simply teleported to the studio, which was a lot more difficult when he was mentally a child.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"What happened? Did I make him cry?" Julie was the first to speak once Reggie disappeared. Now she felt bad. She didn't even yell, and yet, she scared him. She didn't really understand what she had done to upset him, or that he was currently more sensitive then he'd usually be. </p>
<p>"Um..okay. Sit down, I guess I should try and explain." </p>
<p>"Yeah, you should," she nodded, coming to sit next to him. </p>
<p>"He can tell you more later, because I want to go make sure he's okay...but he does this thing called age regression. He's like, mentally a little kid for a little bit, a-and I kinda take care of him?" </p>
<p>Her face softened. "Oh! I've heard of that. I-i didn't know-"</p>
<p>"It's okay! He's just a lot more sensitive when he's like this and any sign of someone being upset with him makes him feel bad. He apologizes for everything. So I'm kinda really soft of him, and if you're going to interact with him while he's little, then you should too." he explained. </p>
<p>Julie nodded. "Oh, I'm sorry. Is he just afraid that I'm mad at him?" she questioned. </p>
<p>"Basically, yeah. He's also kinda scared that someones gonna yell at him, his parents used to when he did something 'wrong'. It'd probably help a lot if you told him yourself that you're not mad, he already felt bad about coming in here." </p>
<p>Julie nodded again, "Of course." she said softly. "What <em>were</em> you two doing though?" </p>
<p>Luke's face went pink. "Well- he likes playing games and stuff and we were playing hide and seek!" </p>
<p>"Awe, you <em>play </em>with him?" Julie asked, speaking in a teasing tone. Luke rolled his eyes. </p>
<p>"Of course, he's a toddler!" he defended. </p>
<p>"Still, it's sweet that you care about him." she smiled at him. She held her hand out. "Lead the way?"</p>
<p>Luke smiled, taking her hand and pulling her along. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Reggie sat in the loft, legs pulled up to his chest. He curled up, rocking back and forth slowly in an attempt to calm himself down. There was a small part of his brain telling him that crying over this was stupid. </p>
<p>But he felt bad. And scared. </p>
<p>If Julie found him, she was gonna be mad! She was gonna yell and tell him that he's stupid and-</p>
<p>"Baby? Are you in here?" his thoughts were interrupted by his friends voice. He let himself take a deep breath, feeling a little safer in his presence. That relief went away when he realized that there were two pairs of feet walking around the studio. </p>
<p>"He's up there," Luke whispered to Julie, pointing up the the loft. "I'll go first." he said. </p>
<p>Julie nodded. "Awe, rockstar. Come here," Luke spoke in a soft, comforting voice once he was up there, coming to sit in front of him. He opened his arms. Reggie hesitantly uncurled himself, falling into Luke's embrace. Luke wrapped his arms around him, squeezing him tightly.</p>
<p>"You're okay," he whispered, rubbing his back again. He pulled away after a few moments. "No one is mad at you, baby. I talked to Julie, everything's okay." he assured. </p>
<p>Reggie bit on his lip, seemingly confused. "I told her about the whole littlespace thing, she's cool with it. Like I said she would be. And she's not mad at you, she isn't gonna yell." </p>
<p>"Weally?" Reggie sniffled a bit, looking up at him nervously. </p>
<p>"Why don't you ask her?" he turned to look back at the girl in question, who stood at the top of the ladder. He made a motion with his head and she climbed into the loft completely, coming forward to sit next to Luke. </p>
<p>She had so many questions about all of this. But right now, all she knew was that she had upset her friend. </p>
<p>And she really, <em>really </em>wanted to fix it. </p>
<p>Reggie looked at her nervously, biting on his thumbnail and waiting for her to talk. "I'm not upset with you. Next time, just ask before going in my room, okay?" she spoke softly, not quite knowing how to deal with him as a kid. </p>
<p>Reggie nodded. "I'm sorry I went in there! I-i was hidin' and I didn' mean to break a rule, I pwomise!" he pouted, speaking in a tone he hoped would convince her. </p>
<p>She smiled a bit, "I'm sure you didn't. Just keep that in mind for next time and everything's good, okay?" </p>
<p>Reggie nodded quickly, agreeing to those terms. Luke seemed pretty happy watching their reaction. The girl he liked was good with this "weird" part of his friend. He was glad that he didn't have to deal with someone being judgmental. </p>
<p>"Hug?" she asked, holding out her arms. </p>
<p>Reggie seemed hesitant, like she was going to revoke the offer. When she didn't, he rushed into her arms, cuddling into her chest. "Cuddles!" he giggled. Julie couldn't help but smile at that. </p>
<p>"He really likes affection," Luke told Julie. "Don't ya', bud?" he spoke to Reggie, who was still hugging Julie. He nodded, hugging Julie just a bit tighter. </p>
<p>"I can tell," she chuckled, not letting go of the baby in her arms. He wasn't technically a <em>baby,</em> but Julie figured that he was as fragile as one. "Why don't we watch a movie or something? You can pick which one we watch!" she spoke in an excited voice, finally pulling away from the hug after a bit. </p>
<p>"Watch um..." Reggie paused, looking at Luke for help. He was pouting, due to the fact that he didn't remember what the movie he had in mind was called. "Pretty princess!" he exclaimed, seemingly frustrated. </p>
<p>Luke laughed. "Pretty dress or pretty hair?" he asked. </p>
<p>"Pretty hair." he whined, with his arms crossed, and a pout on his face.</p>
<p>"He wants to watch Tangled." Luke told Julie. </p>
<p>"Oh! Yeah, dat one!" Reggie confirmed. He giggled a bit. </p>
<p>"Sounds like a plan. I'll go grab my laptop and some blankets, okay?" she looked to Luke, who nodded. </p>
<p>"We'll be in here." </p>
<p>Reggie would have a conversation with Julie about his regression, just as he had with Luke. He wasn't planning on telling Julie, but just like Luke, she reacted well and did what she could to help even if she didn't completely understand what was happening. Maybe, just maybe, Reggie would get the courage to talk to Alex about this soon. </p>
<p>That way, he could be open about this part of him completely. But first, his bandmates needed to know. They were the people he was closest to in his afterlife, and once he told them, he'd be able to regress fairly openly. </p>
<p>As of today, two out of the three knew.  Only one more person to tell. One more anxiety-inducing conversation to have. One more confession. </p>
<p>
  <em>Two down, one to go. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>okay so I'm trying not to make this story go by to quick, I promise! There's a insinuated time skip between Luke first finding out and Julie finding out, I just didn't write a lot of the inbetween stuff. anyways, do you guys like how I'm developing Luke and Reggie's CGLRE dynamic? or, do you have any other feedback to give?<br/>please leave a comment!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Spooky Vibes [Chapter Five/Halloween Special]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Reggie spends Halloween night with Julie and Luke, Reggie regresses, and Julie and Luke play fight over cuddles from the baby.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>happy halloween! I'm crediting Random_Nerd3 for helping me brainstorm this chapter! She's really cool and is also planning to write agere content for this fandom and she's a really cool person so please go support her!<br/>This is just a cute filler and I hope y'all like it!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"AH!" </p>
<p>Reggie jumped, looking away from the tv screen quickly. "You good, Reg?" Luke asked, looking at him. Reggie nodded slowly, pretending as if the sudden jumpscare <em>didn't</em> spook him. </p>
<p>Julie, Luke, and Reggie were all watching horror movies together. It was Halloween night, and she said that they needed to watch scary movies to "take in the spooky vibes". Neither Luke or Reggie really knew what that meant but they figured it'd be fun. </p>
<p>Ray was off at some kids Halloween party with Carlos, while Alex was off with Willie. It seemed like he always was now, for some reason. But the rest of the band didn't mind it. They figured it had to do with him <em>finally</em> having a boyfriend, they understood why he'd want to spend a lot of time with him. </p>
<p>Reggie was having fun until he realized how much scarier modern horror movies were then the one he watched when he was a kid. But he tried to keep his cool, simply distracting himself or pretending it wasn't scary. </p>
<p>Luke and Julie seemed to be enjoying the movies though, trying to predict what would be happening next. Reggie, however, was trying to hold back regression. The movies scared him and he wanted nothing more then to cuddle up next to Luke and his away in his chest. </p>
<p>He couldn't do this now! He was supposed to be big right now!</p>
<p>Luke would've probably given him another rant about how he didn't 'have' to be big ever, and that he would regress whenever he needed or wanted to. But Reggie would still feel very bad if he regressed in the middle of what was supposed to be a horror movie marathon. This was a big kid thing, <em>not</em> a baby Reggie thing. </p>
<p>And plus, Julie had just found out about his age regression. He avoided regressing around her, and he really didn't wanna freak her out or anything. So he silently sat, trying to keep himself both big and calm, holding back whimpers and whines. </p>
<p>The others were also having fun! He couldn't mess that up. </p>
<p>"You're gonna die! How stupid are you?" Julie shouted at the screen as if the characters could hear her. Reggie flinched at the shouting, getting closer to Luke instead of her. Luke glanced over at him but didn't verbally question it. </p>
<p>Reggie looked back to the screen, watching as the character Julie had been referring to died. He knew that the blood wasn't real, but the little toddler part of his brain told him that it somehow was. He bit back a whine, his thumb flying to his lip instantly. Luke reached forward, grabbing the remote and pausing the movie. </p>
<p>Reggie let out a light sigh of relief, while Julie gasped, turning to Luke to complain until she saw how serious he looked. Luke spoke to Reggie, in a tone he would usually take over when he was telling Reggie to do something or he wanted him to listen. It wasn't harsh or mean, just stern in a 'please do this for me' type of way. </p>
<p>"Reg, be honest with me. Are you regressing?" he asked.</p>
<p>Reggie shook his head, quickly feeling guilt settle into his stomach for disregarding his friend's 'no lying' request. Luke gave him a stern look, like when he did something he wasn't supposed to. That didn't happen a lot, and when it did, it was because Reggie forgot that he wasn't supposed to do said thing. </p>
<p>"Don't lie to me." Luke repeated. </p>
<p>Reggie looked down, not replying verbally. "Why didn't you tell me, baby? What happened?" </p>
<p>"S-scary!" Reggie whined, looking at the screen before quickly turning away again. </p>
<p>"The movie scared you?" Luke questioned softly. Reggie nodded, confirming. "Why didn't you tell us? We could've turned it off!" Luke pointed out. </p>
<p>Reggie looked over to Julie, closing in on himself a bit. Julie seemed concerned, and sympathetic. Reggie expected her to be weirded out, or even upset with him for going into littlespace. This was a bad time. </p>
<p>Why was he so sensitive when he regressed?</p>
<p>"m' sorry, didn't wan' mess it up!" he spoke in his little voice, his eyes glossing over as he looked between them with an apologetic look. </p>
<p>"You didn't mess anything up! We can watch kids Halloween movies, it'll still be fun!" Julie jumped in, trying to reassure him. She took a second, looking him up and down before talking again. "If you're worried about being little around me, I really don't mind. We've already had this conversation, you're safe with me." </p>
<p>Reggie hummed. Julie's words seemed to calm him. She opened her arms, and Reggie took the opportunity to hug her. He buried his head in her chest, feeling her arms around him and a light kiss to his forehead. </p>
<p>Luke watched them, silenced by the adorableness that was the scene in front of him. Julie, like him, was pretty good at calming Reggie down. She seemed to know just what he needed to hear, and gave him hugs that made him feel so safe. Plus, they worked well as a team when it came to taking care of Reggie.</p>
<p>"No more hiding when you're feeling small, okay? At least not with us." Julie spoke in a slightly stern voice, pulling away from the embrace. The voice convinced Reggie that whatever she said <em>had </em>to be right. Reggie nodded slowly, bringing his thumb to his lip again. </p>
<p>"How old are you?" she asked, glancing at his lips, where he was seconds away from sucking his thumb.</p>
<p>"Lil." Reggie replied simply, tilting his head a bit. Julie smiled, obviously amused. </p>
<p>"Yes, we know that, darling. But<em> how</em> little?" Luke spoke up, just as amused as the other girl was. Reggie gave a confused pout, seemingly trying to think. </p>
<p>"Baby!" he giggled, letting his thumb slip into his mouth. He bounced in place, obviously happy for whatever reason. </p>
<p>He was easily excited while little. The smallest little thing could make him all giggly and bouncy, which Luke really loved. It was fun to see what would amuse Reggie, doing different things just to see him smile. </p>
<p>Julie was glad that they were able to distract him from any sort of guilt. "Does the baby wanna watch Casper the Friendly Ghost?" </p>
<p>"Was dat?" Reggie mumbled around his thumb. Luke and Julie didn't scold him for sucking his thumb because they didn't know if it mattered or not. He was dead, it wasn't like he could get sick or mess up his teeth. </p>
<p>"It's a cute movie about a nice ghost. Like you guys!" she cheered. </p>
<p>"No scary ghosts?" Reggie asked. Julie shook her head. </p>
<p>"Mkay. Watch it." he nodded, confirming. He settled back into the couch, watching as Luke handed the remote to Julie. As Julie located the movie, Luke reached over and played with Reggie's hair, causing him to lean into him. </p>
<p>Luke was enjoying the affection until Reggie suddenly pulled away. He looked at Julie silently as she settled back into the couch. She opened her arm,letting him lean into her and cuddle into her side, wrapping her arm around him. Luke crossed his arms, gasping. </p>
<p>"I want cuddles too!" he complained playfully, giving a pout that wasn't unlike Little Reggie's. </p>
<p>Reggie looked over to Luke, all cuddled up next to Julie, not wanting to move. Julie looked over to Luke too. Luke winked at Julie, and she smiled. "Nope, he chose me!" she stuck her tongue out, tightening her arm around him. </p>
<p>Reggie giggled a bit. "No fair!" Luke exclaimed. </p>
<p>"It is fair. He likes me more!" Julie made her voice sound like she was bragging. Reggie's smile dropped as he looked between them. He saw Luke's pout, jumping up away from Julie quickly. </p>
<p>"Don't be sad! Like you too!" he assured, jumping onto him and attacking him with cuddles. </p>
<p>"Aw," Luke cooed, hugging him back. He got rid of the fake pout,  "You're so sweet, baby." </p>
<p>"Yeah, we were just playing. You can cuddle with whoever you want, we know you don't pick favorites." Julie assured. Reggie hummed. </p>
<p>"Favite!" Reggie poked Luke once pulling away from their hug. Then, he reached over and did the same thing to Julie. "Favite!" </p>
<p>"D-did- did you just call us your favorites?" Julie gave Reggie a loving look, seemingly touched by this adorably childish action. Reggie nodded. </p>
<p>"Both my favite! Love yous," he cheered, adjusting himself so that he was laying on the couch. He laid his head on Luke's lap, looking up at him. </p>
<p>"I love you too." Luke smiled, running his fingers through his hair. </p>
<p>Julie let Reggie stretch his legs across her lap, settling into the position. "We both love you, sweetie." Julie told him. </p>
<p>After this, they fell into silence, Luke playing with his hair and Julie tracing small circles on his legs. They watched the movie, Reggie giggling here and there. It wasn't long before he fell asleep, though. Drifting off to the affection of his supportive friends, and the sound of a children's movie playing in the background. </p>
<p>That Halloween night was perfect. In every single way. </p>
<p>Alex came back later on to see the three of them asleep on the couch, all cuddled up together. Alex would've assumed it was just like every other cuddly movie night, except for one thing. </p>
<p>
  <em>Reggie had fallen asleep sucking his thumb. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>y'all like that little cliffhanger?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Bedtime and Pink Bears [Chapter Six]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Reggie doesn't want to follow a rule, Reggie calls Julie 'mama' for the first time, and Reggie gets a surprise from Julie.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this chapter is just- hjsiakjsaisngas.<br/>we stan a chapter full of mama!julie and baby!reggie content. We will return to our regularly scheduled cg!luke/little!reggie content in the next chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"No!" </p>
<p>"But baby-"</p>
<p>"No, don't wanna!" </p>
<p>Reggie's whining was cut off by Julie opening the studio door. Reggie sat on the piano, swinging his legs back and forth. He had his arms crossed, and a defiant look on his face. Luke stood next to him, looking to Julie for some help. </p>
<p>"What's going on here, hmm?" she walked forward, until she stood in front of the regressor on the piano. Reggie let his arms fall from there crossed position, avoiding her eyes by looking down. </p>
<p>"This Little Rockstar doesn't like the bedtime rule very much," Luke explained. </p>
<p>"Just because you don't like a rule doesn't mean that you shouldn't follow them," Julie tsked, giving Reggie a look of disapproval. When Reggie glanced up and met her eyes, he looked so guilty and apologetic. </p>
<p>"But..but- Wanna keep playing!" he pouted.</p>
<p>"If you go to bed now, we can wake up super early and play tomorrow!" Luke suggested, jumping back in. </p>
<p>"But Alex will be home...can't play around him," Reggie argued. He was conflicted. He didn't want to go to sleep, but he also didn't want to upset his friends.</p>
<p>Luke went silent, not really knowing what to say. Reggie only willingly regressed when Alex wasn't there. Reggie didn't want to go to bed because he didn't know for sure the next time he'd be able to go into littlespace. It was an understandable reason.</p>
<p>But it was still getting late, and he wanted his baby to get a good amount of sleep.</p>
<p>Julie sighed, grabbing Reggie's attention back. "We will find time for you to be little tomorrow, I promise. But right now, it's bedtime, okay?" </p>
<p>Reggie seemed to falter, considering the option of listening to her before ultimately deciding not to. "No!" he huffed, kicking his foot out and hitting Julie's lower stomach. </p>
<p>"Reggie!" Luke shouted, reacting without thinking. Reggie already seemed like he felt bad, his eyes glossed over. He flinched upon hearing Luke's shouting. </p>
<p>Luke was shouting at him. He did something <em>wrong</em>. </p>
<p>Reggie <em>hurt</em> Julie. </p>
<p>He didn't mean to! He just got upset and needed to do <em>something</em>....</p>
<p>He didn't realize how close Julie was to him. He didn't mean to hit her when he threw his little tantrum.</p>
<p>"Mama! 'm sorry!" Reggie's words were hard to understand due to his baby voice and sobbing, and neither of his friends got the chance to process what he had said because they were busy worrying about him. </p>
<p>Reggie jumped off the piano, attacking Julie in a hug. Julie let her arms fall around him, hugging him back. "Didn't mean to hurt you!" he whimpered, squeezing her around the waist. "M' sorry..."</p>
<p>He continued to babble out apologetic nonsense. Julie swayed in place, holding him close. "I'm okay, darling. You don't kick hard," she chuckled, planting a kiss on his forehead. "You didn't hurt me, I promise."</p>
<p>"You sure?" Reggie had dissolved into a babbling, sobbing mess from a bratty toddler in just a few seconds, looking up at her with guilty eyes. </p>
<p>She nodded softly. Luke seemed to appear magically behind Reggie, wrapping his arms around the two of them and forcing them into a group hug. "You're okay baby. No need to cry," Luke spoke quietly, knowing that he was close enough to Reggie for him to hear his low voice. </p>
<p>"M' sorry for not listening! And for getting mad!" he apologized again, wiggling his way from between them once he stopped crying. He still looked upset, and like he felt terrible, but at least tears weren't running down his face. Luke and Julie separated as well, before speaking to Reggie. </p>
<p>"We're not upset. Some kids don't like bedtime, and some kids misbehave. It's not shocking or anything," Julie shrugged a bit, ruffling his hair. "We're just gonna have to talk about that 'misbehaving' part, so we don't have any more incidents like this." </p>
<p>"Not in trouble?" Reggie tilted his head. Luke shook his head quickly. </p>
<p>"No! You're obviously just having a little bit of an emotional moment, you got upset about having to do to bed, and I know you didn't mean to hurt anyone!" Luke exclaimed. "But..." he trailed off, sighing. Luke didn't like the idea of possibly having to punish Reggie in the future, but he had to know that he couldn't just get away with things like this all the time. </p>
<p>"That doesn't mean you'll get away with misbehaving all the time, okay?" he gave Reggie a stern look. Reggie nodded quickly.</p>
<p>"Mkay! Won't mis-...won't misbe-" he stumbled over his words, pouting and looking to Julie for help. </p>
<p>"Misbehave?" Julie suggested. </p>
<p>"Yeah! Won't to dat again, pwomise!" </p>
<p>The other two smiled at him fondly. Neither of them knew the likelihood of him keeping that promise and <em>never</em> breaking a rule, but they figured that him <em>wanting </em>to behave was a good thing.</p>
<p>After a few moments, Julie spoke again. "Will you go to bed if I let you come cuddle with me for tonight?"</p>
<p>"Sleep wif you?" Reggie mumbled, rubbing at his eyes. The crying must've worn him out. </p>
<p>"Mhm. You can cuddle one of my old stuffies," she sounded convincing enough for the little, who quickly nodded, making grabby hands towards Julie. "Give Luke a hug before we go, sweetheart." </p>
<p>Reggie's eyes widened, and he turned to Luke. "Almost forgot about me, huh?" Luke teased. </p>
<p>"No!" Reggie's voice sounded as offended and shocked as a toddler's voice possibly could, and he pouted. "Never forget chu', ever." his voice was muffled as Luke pulled him into a hug. Reggie giggled. </p>
<p>"Nini, Luke!" he said once pulling away. </p>
<p>"Goodnight, baby. Be a good boy for Julie, okay?" </p>
<p>Reggie gave a quick nod, assuring he'd do as such. He took Julie's outstretched hand, and let her lead the way back to the house. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"Mama," Reggie sleepily whined, pulling away from her hand as they entered Julie's bedroom. </p>
<p>Julie smiled lightly at the name, not questioning it for the time being. "What is it, Reg?" Julie shut the door behind her, watching Reggie as he shuffled through the things on her dresser. Julir didn't know what he was looking for, but he definitely seemed determined to find it.</p>
<p>"Make you all better!" he cheered, holding up a box of band-aids. Julie didn't know why it was there, assuming that Luke pulled them out sometime when Reggie fell or something.</p>
<p>Julie chuckled, "I told you, I'm not hurt!" She sat down on her bed, watching Reggie as he went on to insist that he did this.</p>
<p>"No, no, no. Make it better," Reggie wasn't making much sense at all, but Julie definitely thought his sleepy mumbling was amusing. </p>
<p>"I don't need band-aids, sweetie-" Julie cut herself off when she saw his pouty face. She stopped there. If giving her a band-aid was going to assure his toddler-like mind that she was okay, and make him feel better about the situation, then she wasn't going to stop him. One or two wasted band-aids didn't hurt anyone. </p>
<p>"Gotta make it better." Reggie came over to the bed, opening the box with little trouble and tipping it over on the bed. </p>
<p>"Wait, no-...to late." Julie watched as the entirety of the box was poured on her bed. She didn't scold him, though. It'd be a quick mess to clean up. Reggie looked confused. </p>
<p>"Did I do something wrong?" he asked, in his little innocent voice. </p>
<p>"No, Reggie. You're okay." she assured. </p>
<p>Reggie didn't reply to that, picking up two band-aids. They were the children's ones, with cute little designs on them. He picked out a Hello Kitty one, and a disney princess one.</p>
<p>"Pwetty!" He giggled, pointing to Rapunzel on the princess band-aid. Julie nodded.</p>
<p>"Mhm, she is pretty. But hurry up, darling. It is still bedtime." She reminded.</p>
<p>Reggie was quick to fumble with the band-aids, lifting up Julie's shirt a little bit so that the area he had kicked was exposed. Julie held the shirt out of the way, allowing him to stick the band-aid down.</p>
<p>He took the other one, sticking it right on top and creating a little 'X' on her stomach. Julie was about to pull her shirt back down when Reggie leaned down and lightly kissed the 'X'.</p>
<p>"All better." He said.</p>
<p>Julie pulled him into a hug. "You're so sweet. I love you, baby." She moved to kiss his forehead softly.</p>
<p>"Love you too, mama. Nini time?" He questioned, lifting his head when they pulled away from each other. Julie nodded.</p>
<p>"Lay down, I'm gonna look for something."</p>
<p>Reggie followed her instructions, climbing into bed and settling himself into pillows and pulling a blanket over him. He let his eyes drift shut, bringing his thumb to his lip.</p>
<p>He was awaken by movement next to him, Julie climbing into the bed and laying down. Reggie noticed that the band-aids were gone, so he was able to assume that Julie cleaned them up at some point.</p>
<p>"Reg," Julie whispered.</p>
<p>"Hmm?" Reggie questioned, humming around his thumb. His eyes were barely open, and he was definitely ready to fall back asleep.</p>
<p>"I have a surprise for you."</p>
<p>"B-but.." Reggie seemed confused. "I was bad."</p>
<p>In Reggie's mind, surprises and gifts were for good babies, and he had broken a rule and hit Julie. Therefore, he hadn't been good.</p>
<p>"No," Julie shook her head. "You made a mistake and apologized for it. You're okay." She assured.</p>
<p>She pulled something from behind her back, pushing it into Reggie's chest. He immediately hugged it, cuddling the item close.</p>
<p>"It's one of my old bears, I never named it. You can name it, if you want to." She offered.</p>
<p>"Dis mine?" Reggie seemed a lot more awake now, holding the stuffed animal close. It was a red-furred bear, closer to a pinkish color.</p>
<p>"If you want it." Julie confirmed, smiling at his excitement. "But, we can name it-"</p>
<p>"Her!" Reggie corrected in protest.</p>
<p>"You can name <em>her</em> tomorrow. Its bedtime."</p>
<p>Reggie hummed, hugging the bear and settling his head into the pillow. Julie reached over to turn off the lamp, making it go dark in the room. She laid on her back, holding open her arm and letting him cuddle closer.</p>
<p>Reggie shuffled over to cuddle into her side, laying his head on her chest. She wrapped her arm around him.</p>
<p>Reggie drifted off to sleep, feeling protected by Julie's affection and her gift to him.</p>
<p>There were bad parts to every day, and good ones too.</p>
<p>Cuddling with his friends when bedtime came around was <em>definitely</em> one of the good parts.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Roses and Little Princes [Chapter Seven]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Julie talks to Reggie, Reggie regresses, and they spend the day together.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>okay I liED- this is another Mama!Julie/Baby!Reggie chapter but I promise I'll give Luke more screen time- more scene time? Idk I'll give him more scenes in the next chapter! Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie was woken up the next morning by a soft voice, pulling him out of his dreams. He was <em>going</em> to protest getting up, before he suddenly remembered the events of the night prior. </p>
<p>He sat up, dropping the stuffed bear that had been in his arms. It fell on the blanket next to him. "Whoa, calm down Reg! You're okay, I promise." Julie spoke, settling her hand on his shoulder. She sat on the edge of the bed next to him.</p>
<p>"I'm <em>so </em>sorry about last night." Reggie began his anxious rambling despite her reassurance. "I was being a brat for no reason and I kept crying-"</p>
<p>"Reggie." Julie took over a tone not unlike the stern one used to get him to listen when he was small. Reggie went quiet, looking at Julie with a somewhat nervous look.</p>
<p>"You don't have to defend yourself, or apologize for anything. I'm not mad at you." She spoke in a sure, definite voice. Reggie seemed hesitant to believe her, but he nodded.</p>
<p>"Thank you." Reggie decided on his next words after a moment, giving Julie a small smile.</p>
<p>"For what?" She questioned, though she was fairly sure that she knew the answer.</p>
<p>"For dealing with me."</p>
<p>"Anytime." Julie paused, before speaking again. "I wanted to talk to you, about a few things. Is that alright with you?"</p>
<p>Reggie nodded slowly, looking a little anxious about whatever she was going to bring up. "First of all, Luke is distracting Alex right now, so if you wanna be little, you can."</p>
<p>Reggie chose nodding over verbal confirmation, so Julie continued speaking. "I guess I'll get straight to the point. How do you feel about telling Alex about all this?"</p>
<p>There was a pause, and Julie thought that maybe she shouldn't of brought it up. But just when she was going to let him know that he didn't have to answer, Reggie replied. </p>
<p>"I'm not completely against it," Reggie admitted, speaking up with a voice full of hesitancy. "It's still scary though. But I feel like he'd get it, he deals with anxiety too...worse then me really. I feel like he'd be glad I found a way to deal with it."</p>
<p>Reggie sounded hopeful, but also worried. "I think you're right. And no one said that you have to tell him <em>now, </em>Luke and I just thought we'd bring it up now so that you could think about it."</p>
<p>"Was there anything else?" Reggie questioned after a beat of silence.</p>
<p>"Hmm?" Julie hummed, seemingly confused. </p>
<p>"You said you wanted to talk to me about a <em>few </em>things." Reggie elaborated. Julie remembered the other thing she wanted to bring up. </p>
<p>"Oh! Yeah..um, I wanted to ask about the whole 'mama' thing..." Julie trailed off for a moment while Reggie's face went red, and he immediately avoided looking at her face. "There's nothing wrong with you calling me that! If I was uncomfortable with it, I'd tell you. I just wanted to know why, I guess. Is that something that's normal for littles?"</p>
<p>Reggie let out a light sigh of relief. Julie wasn't judging him, she was just curious. She didn't seemed concerned. Or angry..<em>.just curious</em>. "Um..kinda? I'm sorry that I called you that without like, talking to you about it first." He apologized.</p>
<p>Julie shook her head. "If its something that makes you feel more comfortable in your headspace, I don't mind it." she repeated.</p>
<p>Reggie kept going. "Yeah. Some regressors have people that take care of them, like caregivers. And they might call them some variation of mom or dad because they play a parent role...and I guess little me recognizes you as 'the nice lady who cares for me' and it just kinda..slipped out a few times."</p>
<p>Julie only smiled, seemingly touched by that. "I'm glad you feel safe around me. I don't care if you wanna call me that, I just wanted to know why. That's all I wanted to talk about."</p>
<p>Reggie smiled a bit, feeling a lot less awkward. "Okay, cool. What are Luke and Alex doing?" He immediately found a way to change the subject, and Julie didn't seem to catch on, replying to his question. </p>
<p>"They're at the beach with Willie, I think. Alex mentioned wanting us to get to know Willie and Luke thought it'd be the perfect way to get him out of the house, because you seemed pretty worried that you wouldn't be able to regress." Julie explained.</p>
<p>Reggie frowned, and Julie interrupted his thoughts before he even got the chance to speak. "Don't apologize for misbehaving again. You wanted to stay up because you wanted to be little, you were upset reasonably. No ones mad at you."</p>
<p>Reggie shut up quickly, nodding in affirmation. Julie sounded so authoritative most of the time, always seeming as if she was right in what she said. She could say the craziest thing in that tone and Reggie would probably agree without questioning it. </p>
<p>"Anyways, I think it's time to get up. You slept in pretty late," Julie stood up, holding her hand out. Reggie took it, allowing her to pull him out of bed with no protest. He picked up the bear before straightening up, hugging it to his chest.</p>
<p>He noticed that Julie was looking at him, so he lowered the bear as if 'correcting' his actions. As if carrying the bear was wrong and he wasn't supposed to be doing it. He had a light pout on his face. Julie quickly jumped to reassure him.</p>
<p>"You're okay! I don't care if you carry the bear...you just don't do stuff like that when you're big. So I was wondering if you were feeling small," she explained, looking at Reggie expectedly.</p>
<p>"Am I allowed to?" Reggie asked, tilting his head and looking at her with curious and innocent eyes. He was slipping <em>fast.</em></p>
<p>He didn't even really understand why. Being around Julie or Luke always made him feel a little small. They were so protective of him, caring and sweet. Always willing to give up time to take care of him. Reggie felt pretty bad about that sometimes, he felt like he took to much of their time.</p>
<p>"Of course you are, you can be little whenever you need to."</p>
<p>"B-but I dont <em>need </em>to be little right now," Reggie pouted, hugging the bear to his chest again. "I wanna be little. Should be big."</p>
<p>"No, baby." Julie correct him quickly, stopping his pouty rambling. "You're allowed to be tiny because you <em>want </em>to. You don't have to limit your headspace to when you're stressed, regressing for fun is completely okay."</p>
<p>Reggie hummed, nodding a bit. Julie could tell he wasn't completely little, but he wasn't far from it. "We should get you dressed in something soft. Don't you get uncomfortable in jeans after wearing them for so long?" Julie asked.</p>
<p>Reggie shrugged, bringing his thumb up to his lip. "Hmm. Well, how about we look at some of my clothes? If you don't find anything you like, you can stay in your clothes." She compromised.</p>
<p>Reggie nodded, following Julie's lead, walking over to her closet with her. "Do you see anything you like, Reg?"</p>
<p>Reggie settled his thumb into his mouth, his eyes glancing around the closet. His eyes paused on a solid red t-shirt, with Winnie the Pooh on it. He had never seen Julie wear it before, but he immediately wanted it.</p>
<p>He pointed to it silently, bouncing on his feet. "You want the Winnie shirt?" Julie smiled lightly, pulling it off of the rack and holding it up to him. While Reggie was taller then her, their clothing sizes didn't seem to be far apart. The shirt was cropped too, but Reggie didn't seem to care.</p>
<p>"Winnie! Cute bear," Reggie said simply. "Watch it wif Luke." He explained.</p>
<p>"Really? Maybe we could watch it later," Reggie smiled at that, seemingly excited at the possibility of that. "Only if you're <em>really </em>good today." Julie decided, tapping the button of his nose with the pointer finger of her free hand. She walked over and set the shirt on the bed, before going back to the closet. </p>
<p>She started rummaging through it, so focused on finding some suitable pants for the boy that she didn't notice him slip away from his spot next to her. It wasn't until she heard his frustrated toddler voice sound behind her that she realized. </p>
<p>"Juwie!" he whined, his shirt stuck part way over his torso. He had discarded his flannel on Julie's bed, and was trying to pull his black shirt off of him. "Hewp!" he requested,  Julie noticing the little frustrated huff he let out. This childish anger was the same thing that led him to his little temper tantrum the night before. </p>
<p>"I'm coming, baby!" Julie chuckled, coming over to him and instructing that he held his arms up. In no time, Julie got the shirt over his head, and it was discarded on the bed with the other article of clothing. </p>
<p>Reggie's face was painted with a little angry pout that amused Julie. He seemed to come to his senses, and that pout faded into a smile. "T'ank you!" he cheered. </p>
<p>"You're welcome, darling. But, you could've waited for me to help you in the first place," Julie said. Reggie seemed confused, shaking his head. </p>
<p>"Always do things m'self!" </p>
<p>"You don't have to, though. It's okay to ask for help," Julie told him, picking up the character shirt and pulling it over Reggie's head. He pushed his arms through their holes and pulled the shirt down. "You look so cute, Reggie!" Julie complimented, patting his head softly. Reggie blushed, biting his lip. </p>
<p>"Thanks." he mumbled, looking down at himself. </p>
<p>"Did you want to change pants, or were you just planning on stealing my shirt?" Julie questioned, crossing her arms. </p>
<p>"Stealing da shirt, das it." Reggie giggled, picking up the bear from where he had left it on the bed. Julie chuckled, shaking her head a bit.</p>
<p>"You're a silly baby, Reg."</p>
<p>"Siwwy," Reggie giggled again, bouncing on his feet. "Baby?" he pointed to himself after a moment, seemingly asking a question. </p>
<p>"Yeah, you're a baby. A very cute one at that," Julie tapped the button of his nose again, and Reggie face broke out into a smile. </p>
<p>Being reminded that he was, in fact, a baby, without any judgement, make him feel like it was okay to be that way. It made him feel <em>smaller.</em></p>
<p>"Can I play now?" Reggie asked, holding the bear in his arms tight and looking up at Julie pleadingly.</p>
<p>Julie nodded. Seeing him so innocent, just wanting to play and cuddle, it was different. It made her happy to know that something as cute as this childish getaway helped him cope. And she wanted to help where she could. </p>
<p>"What do you wanna do, Little Prince?"</p>
<p>The new nickname slipped out of her mouth without any hesitation. It had popped in her head and she impulsively decided that it felt right. For a split second, Julie thought about taking it back.</p>
<p>But the moment she saw Reggie's shy smile, and the excited look on his face as he went to ramble about his options for playtime, she realized that the nickname made him happy. </p>
<p>It was like how Luke called him 'Little Rockstar' sometimes. Julie never called him that, it was something for Luke and Luke only. Something special for just them. </p>
<p><em>This</em> was something special for him and Julie. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"Mama, da bear is red...like a rose!" Reggie looked at the stuffed toy in his lap. He was currently sitting on the ground in a criss-cross position, with Julie's laptop in front of him. As promised, Julie had put of Winnie the Pooh for them to watch together. </p>
<p>Julie nodded, "Yeah, like a rose." she hummed, pausing before continuing. "Roses are pretty flowers, don't ya' think?"</p>
<p>Reggie seemed confused as to why she was asking this, but he nodded firmly. He leaned his back against Julie's bed behind him. Julie didn't know why Reggie had wanted to sit on the ground instead of her bed, but she let him. He seemed comfortable just sitting on the fluffy rug, a soft blanket of Julie's pulled around his shoulders. </p>
<p>"Why?" he asked. </p>
<p>"Because roses are just like you!" Julie spoke in a playful tone that communicated that what she was saying was absolutely obvious. Reggie's eyebrows furrowed, and he tilted his head, his lips forming a light pout. </p>
<p>He didn't like not understanding things! It made him feel like a baby. Not in the good way either...he just felt stupid. Julie smiled, leaning closer to him and speaking in a quiet voice, as if her words were a secret. "<em>You're </em>a pretty flower." She spoke in a teasing voice, knowing the compliment would embarrass him. </p>
<p>He was just so cute when he got all shy. </p>
<p>Reggie took a second to register, but his face went red. He pulled the stuffed bear from his lap, lifting it up so that his face was covered. "Awe, don't hide from me, Flower!" Julie pulled a fake sad face, reaching forward to pull Reggie's arms (and therefore, the stuffed animal) down. </p>
<p>"You're mean, mama!" Reggie whined, turning his head so that he was looking away from Julie. Julie knew he didn't mean it, but she gasped. </p>
<p>"I'm mean for calling you pretty?" </p>
<p>Reggie hummed in affirmation, keeping a firm pout on his face. "How so, Reg?" Julie watched as he looked back at her, quickly jumping into the babyish logic behind claiming that she was mean. </p>
<p>He didn't seem to be able to come up with anything, though. He just pouted, huffing in frustration. "Mean!" he exclaimed. </p>
<p>"I think you're just pouty because I made you blushhh," Julie teased. Reggie continued to pout, scrunching up his nose. Julie considered continuing to push the teasing, but she figured that she'd eventually actually annoy him. If his angry pout meant anything, it seemed that she wasn't far from it. </p>
<p>She <em>didn't</em> want a grumpy little on her hands. </p>
<p>"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, baby." julie noticed that Reggie was actually paying attention to the cartoon again, wrapping her arm around him. Reggie leaned into her side, mumbling out a few words. </p>
<p>
  <em>"It's okay, mama." </em>
</p>
<p>Those words made Julie smile. Over the past few weeks, Julie had been getting to know Little Reggie, while Luke, Julie, and Reggie became more closer overall. Reggie regressed quite a bit during this period, because it was the first time in his life where he felt safe too. </p>
<p>He had two amazing friends to go to, to take care of him. They didn't care if he regressed every other day, or if he was a handful to deal with. They were so supportive of this vulnerable, childlike part of himself. Because they cared about him. </p>
<p>Because they <em>loved</em> him. </p>
<p>And soon enough, Alex would meet Little Reggie too. The only question was, would he be as supportive as Luke and Julie were about it? </p>
<p>Reggie would find out come the time. </p>
<p>
  <em>But 'the time', was sooner then anyone expected. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Let me know if you liked this chapter! I kinda got caught up in Julie and Reggie's dynamic but I will return to the actual plot (kinda) in the next chapter!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Panic Attacks and Secrets [Chapter Eight]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Reggie panics and involuntarily regresses after a nightmare, Alex meets up with Willie at a skatepark when band practice is cancelled, and Reggie makes a big decision.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>been planning *this* plot point for a while. Hope y'all enjoy.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reggie wanted Luke.</p>
<p>
  <b>Now.</b>
</p>
<p>He couldn't breathe. Or at least, it felt that way. He didn't remember what was so scary about his dream at first, all he knew is that it upset him.</p>
<p>Tears ran down his face as he sobbed, sniffling. He sat up, taking in his surroundings. He was in Julie's bed. He didn't recall why, but he was glad he had the stuffed bear Julie gave him for comfort.</p>
<p>He knew that he was very little but he didn't <em>care. </em>This was to much for him. And he needed Luke.</p>
<p>"Reggie, it's time to get up for band practice-"</p>
<p>Reggie heard Julie's voice as she opened the door, speaking casually until she got a glance of him. "Oh my god, Reg! What happened?" She shut her door behind her, and quickly came to sit next to him on the bed.</p>
<p>She had let him nap in her room because he had stayed up late the night before doing something, planning to come wake him up before band practice.</p>
<p>Reggie shook his head, closing in on himself and squeezing the bear. "Mama!" Reggie cried, babbling over his words. He panicked, his breathing becoming more quickened and panicky.</p>
<p>"Baby, I need you to breathe for me. Like me, okay?" Julie continued to breathe in deeply, and then out. Reggie nodded, attempting to follow her lead. She didn't care that he was little at a bad time, she just wanted him to be okay.  Julie didn't ask for an explanation, nor did she question what was going on. In the moment, she just did everything she could to help him calm down.</p>
<p>She continued on, muttering praise and reassurance until his breathing was more level. "Bad dream, mama! Scary and I wan Luke..." he whined, still sniffling.</p>
<p>"It's okay, baby," Julie opened her arms, letting him hug her. He snuggled into her chest, hugging her tightly. "And I'll see if I can get Luke for you, yeah?"</p>
<p>"Band pwactice?" Reggie pulled away, tilting his head. "Gotta be big."</p>
<p>"No, you don't. You just had some sort of panic attack and that's what this is for, remember? To deal with your mental health and emotions."</p>
<p>Reggie nodded, and Julie continued. "We don't have a gig for a week, we'll come up with another time to practice. And...I'll come up with something to tell Alex. You just play with your stuffie, okay?"</p>
<p>Reggie picked the bear back up from the bed, hugging it and nodding. Julie's breathing exercise and affection helped comfort him a bit, but he still didn't feel well. He wanted Luke.</p>
<p>Luke's comfort seemed so important in the moment due to the contents of his dream. The nightmare made him afraid of losing Luke, and he needed to know that he wouldn't. </p>
<p>Julie leaned forward and kissed his forehead. Reggie hugged the stuffed animal, trying to focus on keeping his breathing level for the time being, watching his Mama leave the room. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"Julie!" Luke cheered once Julie entered the studio, dropping his smile when he saw how serious she looked. "Where's Reggie?"</p>
<p>"I need to talk to you," Julie said, in a serious tone that scared him a bit. . Luke lifted his guitar over his head, going over and setting it on his stand. </p>
<p>"I'll be back." He told Alex, following Julie out of the studio and leaving the blonde very confused. Once they were outside, and the garage doors were shut behind him, he spoke aloud, questioning what was going on. </p>
<p>"What's up, Jules?"</p>
<p>"Reggie had a panic attack," Julie sighed, seemingly worried. "He said something about a bad dream and he's very little and he's asking for you. Can we cancel band practice? Can you <em>please</em> go spend some time with him?" Julie pleaded. She was really worried. </p>
<p>"Of course...I'll tell Alex that Reggie had a nightmare but leave out the details. He used to get them pretty bad, about his parents and stuff, and he'd be sensitive after. I'm sure he won't think anything of it," Luke decided, nodding. "I'll talk to Reggie, and then we can all do something as a distraction for him, okay?"</p>
<p>"Sounds like a plan." Julie confirmed, still on-edge. </p>
<p>"Hey," Luke spoke softly to her, picking up on her stress. "He's gonna be okay. We'll figure this out." </p>
<p>Julie hummed, nodding. "Yeah...thanks for that." She thanked him for the comfort, and Luke smiled. </p>
<p>"Of course." </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"Nightmares? I feel so bad...I thought those went away," Alex frowned, worried for his friend. "Can I see him? I used to help him when he had them when we were alive."</p>
<p>"No!" Julie said, immediately. She awkwardly chuckled, "We got this. You go hang out with Willie or something, and we can all hang out later tonight." she compromised. Julie understood that Alex was worried and tried to come up with a solution that would allow him to see Reggie, without exposing him for being an age regressor. </p>
<p>"O-okay, yeah. You sure you got this?" Alex looked to Luke, who nodded. "When I come back, can we talk all about something?" Alex asked. </p>
<p>"Uh, yeah. Whatever you want, just not right now." Luke wasn't really worried about whatever he was planning to bring up, just trying to get him out so that he could go help his baby. </p>
<p>Alex nodded, setting his drumsticks down and stepping away from the drum set. Luke gave him a soft smile, before poofing out as Julie exited through the door. Alex didn't know what was up, but he was worried. </p>
<p>It seemed like Luke was always trying to keep him out of the house, and while he loved spending time with his boyfriend, he was missing his friends too. But he was kinda thankful about it, because they never questioned <em>why</em> he was gone all the time, they just seemed to be glad that he wasn't in the house to discover whatever they were keeping from him. </p>
<p>They were hiding something from him, but he was hiding something too. It wasn't his secret to tell anyways. It was Willie's. </p>
<p>He figured that he should go check on the boy in question anyways. With everything going on, Willie was always pretty stressed. Hiding a relationship from the person who owns your soul will do that to you. He poofed out, appearing on a bench at a empty skate park. </p>
<p>How long would it be before it hit them that their secrets were exactly the same? At least, Willie and Reggie's were. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"Luke!" Reggie made grabby hands towards his friend the moment he appeared in the room. Luke came forward, leaning down to hug him without making him get up from the bed. Reggie cuddled into his chest. "Scary dream, Luke! You didn't wanna be friends anymore- and Julie left too. And Alex-" he started rambling, working himself back to tears again. </p>
<p>"Baby, none of us would ever leave you, okay? I know nightmares can be scary but <em>they're not real. "</em>  Luke assured, kissing the top of Reggie's head softly. "None of us are going anywhere, I promise you." </p>
<p>He let go of Reggie, letting him settle back into the bed. "I heard you kinda panicked. Are you feeling okay?" Luke sat on the bed next to him, hearing the door open as Julie entered. She didn't interrupt, closing the door behind her and taking her spot on the other side of Reggie as he replied. </p>
<p>"Still sad." he mumbled, shaking his head. "Don't wanna lose you," he said. </p>
<p>"I know, baby. You won't," Luke repeated. Julie seemed concerned. "Do you wanna tell Mama what the dream was about?"</p>
<p>Reggie turned to Julie, bringing his thumb to his lip. "Lost Luke, and yous, and Alex. Didn't wanna be friends anymore," he pouted. </p>
<p>"Poor baby," Julie opened his arms, letting him hug her. "Luke's right, we're not going anywhere. I can promise you that, Little Prince." </p>
<p>Reggie hummed, cuddling into her too. "Hey, Rockstar?" Luke asked after a minute of just them hugging. Reggie pulled away from Julie, tilting his head as he looked over at him. "Will a movie make you feel a bit better?" Luke asked. </p>
<p>Reggie shrugged. "We could watch Winnie the Pooh!" Julie suggested, in a excited tone that made Reggie really wanna watch it. He pouted though, shaking his head. "Why not, Flower?" </p>
<p>"Makes me littler," he mumbled shyly, his face a little pink. </p>
<p>Luke gave an amused smile. "And exactly how big are you right now?" he questioned in a teasing tone. </p>
<p>"Dunno," Reggie pouted. "Not a baby," he decided. </p>
<p>"Hmm, well...does Winnie the Pooh make you happy?" Julie interrupted, joining back in on the conversation. Reggie nodded slowly. "Then what does it matter if it triggers a younger headspace? You're allowed to be little, even if 'little' is very young."</p>
<p>Reggie seemed hesitant to agree, but Julie leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead, distracting him from whatever he was going to say. "I'll set up the show. Julie, is there any way to get more blankets so that the baby is more comfy? We can build a little pillow fort!"</p>
<p>Reggie bounced it place. "Yeah, Mama, can we?" </p>
<p>Julie rolled her eyes, playfully glaring at Luke, chuckling a bit. "Yeah, I'll see what I can do. Reggie, you can be my little helper!" </p>
<p>"That's a very important job, mister." Luke said playfully. Reggie nodded, seeming determined to help Julie with whatever she needed. Julie stood up, reaching out her hand for Reggie to take. </p>
<p>What Reggie needed right now was a distraction. And Julie and Luke were providing just that. They always seemed to know what he needed and how to help him. </p>
<p>And Reggie would always be thankful for that. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Alex poofed onto a bench in an empty skate park, looking around for Willie. </p>
<p>"Alex!" Willie cheered, stopping his skateboard in front of the bench. He sat down next to him. Alex still had no idea how they were always able to correctly guess where the other was most of the time. It was weird. </p>
<p>"Hey, Willie," Alex chuckled at his excitement. "How are you?"</p>
<p>"Not little, if that's what you're getting at," Willie told him. "Actually though, I'm pretty okay at the moment! I've been skating and just hanging out. You?" </p>
<p>"Well, I was supposed to practice with the band today but then they cancelled it because of Reggie. He was pretty shaken up after a nightmare, they wouldn't let me see him for some reason." Alex explained. </p>
<p>"It sounds like they're hiding something related to Reggie from you. Do you have any ideas on what it could be?" Willie frowned, sitting back in the bench and getting settled. </p>
<p>"Actually, I think I might." </p>
<p>"Go on," Willie seemed interested. </p>
<p>"At first I thought it was just a weird Reggie thing- but on Halloween night, I caught Reggie sleeping and sucking his thumb. I-i think he might be like you," Alex seemed hesitant, like he wasn't completely sure. </p>
<p>"I mean, I think that's possible. You said that he deals with anxiety too, right? And that he didn't have the best childhood?" </p>
<p>Alex nodded in affirmation. "Those are both two things people can use age regression to deal with." </p>
<p>Alex nodded again, "There's so many other things too. I was thinking it in the back of my mind since you told me about you a month ago, but I didn't know for sure. He will disappear with either Julie or Luke, or both, for extended periods of time. Whenever I come home, one of them will distract me until the other two come back, and Reggie always is kinda shy."</p>
<p>"Like I am when I come out of littlespace," Willie connected. </p>
<p>"Yeah, I don't know, but I do think it's possible. Either way, I'm gonna ask them about it tonight, see if I can figure out what they're keeping from me." Alex ran his fingers through his hair. "But while I'm here, do you wanna do something?"</p>
<p>"I-i know I said I wasn't little-"</p>
<p>"You can be if you want." Alex cut him off, smiling at him. Willie smiled back, nodding. </p>
<p>"Okay. Cool. Can we go to the park?" Willie was thankful. He could only ever feel comfortable being little away from the club, and it was much easier to be a kid when you had someone to play with. </p>
<p>"Of course."</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"Luke! Look at all the blankies we got!" Reggie giggled, coming over to Julie's bed and dumping a pile of soft blankets on the bed. He looked so proud of himself for helping, even though it was obvious that Julie carried more and did all the work. </p>
<p>"Whoa! Those are a lot! You must be so strong, baby." </p>
<p>Reggie blushed a little bit. He was still getting used to the praise thing. Instead of pointing out things he did wrong, or getting mad at him, they made a point to tell him what he did well. While softly correcting and helping him improve in spots he could do better. Instead of <em>'You're not good enough'</em>, it was <em>'You're amazing, and we're gonna help you be even better'.</em> </p>
<p>"Now you get to help me set this up! I don't know how we're gonna do a fort though..." she trailed off, looking around her room. "We could pull the chair over here, and use the stool to create a roof? Just drape the blanket across it and set up on the floor?"</p>
<p>They eventually figured out the blanket fort thing, setting it up on the ground. They all cuddled up inside of it, Reggie sitting between his friends with the computer on his lap. Reggie was definitely right about the show making him littler. </p>
<p>He was sucking on his thumb and cuddling both his bear and Luke. Julie had been the one mainly taking care of Reggie the past few times he regressed, and he seemed to want Luke now. That dream spooked him, and out of the two people he trusted, he wanted the one he knew longer. Julie didn't take offence to that, just glad that he was feeling better. </p>
<p>Reggie kept giggling at the movie, but he eventually fell back asleep against Luke. Luke reached forward,pressing the spacebar on the laptop to pause the show once he was sure the baby was sleeping. "We should let him get some more sleep. He can stay in the pillow fort, though." Luke suggested. </p>
<p>Julie nodded, "The crying probably tired him back out. We can let him sleep for a while and hopefully he'll be big when he wakes up." </p>
<p>Luke nodded a bit in response, closing the laptop and setting it aside, working to carefully lay Reggie down without waking him up. He stirred a bit at the last minute, whining. "No go.." Reggie mumbled sleepily. He fell back asleep basically immediately, but Luke's heart melted. </p>
<p>"Julie, he's so adorable-"</p>
<p>"I know, but if you spend a million years cooing over him, we're never gonna come up with something to tell Alex."</p>
<p>Luke rolled his eyes, proceeding to climb out of their little fort, followed by Julie. </p>
<p>Little did they know, there was no need to lie to Alex. They'll figure it out eventually. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"I have to go home, kiddo. I'm sorry," Alex looked at the pouty kid in front of him, frowning a bit.</p>
<p>"But Awex!" Willie whined. "Wanna keep playin'." </p>
<p>Alex smiled a bit at his mispronunciation of his name, "I know, Little One. But we can always play later, right?" </p>
<p>Willie nodded, casting his eyes down. "Mkay. I miss you." </p>
<p>"I'll miss you too, Willie." Alex opened his arms, letting the little hug him. Little Willie had an older headspace age then Little Reggie, for sure, but they were alike in many ways. When they eventually met, and interacted in littlespace, it was undoubtedly going to be an absolutely adorable sight to see. </p>
<p>But of course, there were many things that needed to happen before they got there. Many secrets to be told. Many conversations to be had. </p>
<p>"Can you be a big kid for me, buddy? I know big Willie can take care of himself, I don't know about you, though."</p>
<p>Willie pouted, but he nodded nonetheless. "Be big after you leave, pwomise." he held out his pinky childishly. </p>
<p>Alex gave an amused smile, wrapping his pinky around his. "I know it's hard to pull yourself out of headspace. It's okay." </p>
<p>After a moment of silence, Alex leaned forward, kissing Willie's forehead before smiling at him. "I'll see you later." </p>
<p>Willie hummed, stepping back as he poofed out. Willie frowned, sad that he was gone. He stepped back onto the playground, going over to the swings and taking a seat. </p>
<p>He had to be big before heading back to the club. Sometimes, Caleb wasn't the nicest person about the more childish part of him. Only sometimes, when things at the club weren't doing well and there was a lot going on. And Willie knew he had been pretty stressed after failing to possess a teenage boy for more then a few day. And getting yelled at for not being able to understand orders wasn't something on his 'to-do' list for today. </p>
<p>He was glad he got to spend some time with Alex, though. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"There, all the pillow fort stuff is put away. I think Alex will be heading back soon, though." Luke said, looking over to a nervous Reggie as he set one of Julie's pillows back in place on her bed. </p>
<p>"Are you sure you wanna tell him? We can come up with a lie." Julie offered, coming to sit next to him. Reggie shook his head a bit. </p>
<p>"I'm okay. I-i'm sure about this. Nervous out of my mind, but sure." </p>
<p>"Okay, Reg. Just let us know if you change your mind." Luke told him, sitting down as well. </p>
<p>"I will." Reggie assured, biting on his lip and bouncing his knee. He was very nervous. This was the first time he'd be willingly telling someone, and it was terrifying. He could still back out, but he didn't think he wanted to. He trusted Alex, and he knew somewhere, deep down, that he'd probably be okay with it. </p>
<p>The most he'd do is tease him playfully like Luke did. But it was still scary. </p>
<p>Alex walked through the door, talking about how he had gone to the studio to find them first. Reggie waited until he was done with his rambling, speaking up nervously. </p>
<p>
  <em>"Alex, I have something to tell you..."</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Was he really doing this?</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>so ig now is the right time to announce that this fic is supposed to be the first of a few within this universe? I mean, y'all gotta get Willie and Alex's side of the story *eventually*, right? Anyways, what do y'all think about this chapter?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. How Things Work [Chapter 9]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Reggie talks to Alex about his regression</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A/N: Sorry there was a longer wait between chapters! I'm currently working on an original agere work, and midterms are coming up so I have quite a bit going on! I decided to take some time before bed to finish up this chapter and release it! It's kinda short, and is mostly there to advance the plot, but the next chapter should be longer. </p>
<p>I hope you like it!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Alex, I have something to tell you..." Reggie trailed off, internally panicking but trying to keep it together.</p>
<p>"What is it, Reg?" </p>
<p>Alex realized that whatever this was was serious and important to him. He went over to sit on Julie's stool, next to the bed that Julie, Luke, and Reggie sat at. Reggie took a few deep </p>
<p>"I'm something called a little, I think like a little kid sometimes, when I get stressed or anxious or sad. Sometimes it happens when I get to happy, too, just depends." Reggie stopped there, looking at Alex's face and trying to gage his reaction to it as the blonde processed his words. </p>
<p>"Really?" Alex finally replied, "I knew it."</p>
<p>"You knew it?" Luke questioned. </p>
<p>"Willie told me that he didn't care if I said anything if you were also a little," Alex thought aloud, mumbling under his breath, "Willie's a little too, and I thought that you might be one but I didn't know for sure." </p>
<p>"Oh." Reggie stated simply. "You knew, I panicked over nothing, great." he mumbled, running his fingers through his hair. Alex softened his face, </p>
<p>"Even if I didn't already have suspicions, I would've supported you. How long have you been a regressor?" Alex questioned, trying to start a casual conversation to make him more comfortable. </p>
<p>Reggie went to open his mouth, but Luke interrupted. "So we're just gonna completely skip over the fact that Willie's a little? Is that why you're always with him? Are you his caregiver?"</p>
<p>"I'll let him tell you guys about his littlespace when he wants to, and yeah, that's why I'm with him a lot. I'm his caregiver," Alex confirmed. "Are you Reggie's?"</p>
<p>"Uh, no? Kinda?" Luke seemed hesitant, not quite sure. </p>
<p>"We haven't talked about it," Reggie clarified. Alex nodded slowly, his eyes suspiciously flicking between the two of them. </p>
<p>"Is Julie?" Alex asked, looking at the girl who had been remaining silent. </p>
<p>"I haven't talked to her either. And I've been regressing in private since we were alive, maybe since I was 14-ish, but I didn't know there was a name for it until a few months ago." Reggie shifted the topic of the conversation.</p>
<p>"How long has Luke and Julie known?"</p>
<p>"Luke found me regressed around a month ago, and Julie did the same thing about two weeks ago. You're the only person I've willingly told," he admitted, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. </p>
<p>"I'm glad you told me, Reggie. If there's ever anything I can do to help, let me know. Is there anything else you wanna tell me?"</p>
<p>"Is there anything else you wanna know?" Reggie challenged. He knew that talking about his headspace could very easily trigger it, but he could avoid that if he tried hard enough. </p>
<p>"Do you want me and Julie to stay, or would you rather us go?" Luke interrupted again. They didn't really play a role in this conversation, and Reggie seemed a lot more comfortable now that he knew Alex wasn't going to judge him. </p>
<p>"You can go, if you want. Wait in the studio for us?" </p>
<p>Luke nodded, standing up. Julie did too, the two of them moving to exit the room. "Why didn't you tell me before? I'm assuming you do it for anxiety, you know I deal with the same thing, I would've understood."</p>
<p>"And trauma." he corrected, before continuing. "And I know, I was just scared, I guess. But with Luke and Julie reassuring me, I felt a lot safer. So I told you." </p>
<p>Alex hummed, "And how old are you when you're small? Willie is 4 to 8 most of the time."</p>
<p>"I'm between a tiny baby and around five," Reggie admitted, blushing deeply. "I don't know how Luke and Julie deal with me." he added. </p>
<p>Alex chuckled, "I don't know if I could take care of a toddler, so I couldn't tell you. Are they good at taking care of you?"</p>
<p>Reggie nodded quickly, "Mhm! I was little earlier, we made a blanket fort and cuddled and watched-" Reggie cut himself off, realizing he was talking in his little voice again. He felt little so much more often now, when he knew he had people to take care of him. He spent a lot of time in his headspace. </p>
<p>Not an unhealthy amount, he still managed his band responsibilities and such, but those were his <em>only </em>responsibilities. Besides the band, practices and song writing, he just sat around. And filling his free time with being a kid was kinda fun. </p>
<p>Plus, he was being asked about two of his favorite people in the whole world! The bestest Mama and...Luke, in the world. How could he not slip when talking about them in that sense? They made him feel safe.</p>
<p>"What did you watch?" Alex asked curiously, smirking a bit when he realized what was happening. </p>
<p>"Winnie the Pooh." Reggie answered quietly. "D-do you have any more questions?" Reggie bit on his lip, fiddling with his hands in his lap. He didn't need to be little right now. But he did really, really want to. </p>
<p>Well, maybe he did need more little time. He had just done a really brave and scary thing, and now that everything was okay, some more relaxing time seemed nice. No, no, no. He was fine. He could be big, he was a teenager.</p>
<p>"I can't think of any now, but I'm sure they'll come up....oh, do you wanna hang out with Willie or something? It can be like a playdate thing, or just some time to talk about everything together now that you have something in common," Alex offered. "You don't have too, I know you're not close to him-"</p>
<p>"I'd love to. Meeting another little sounds nice," Reggie interrupted. "Just take me with you when you go to see him."</p>
<p>"I think that's it for now. We can talk more later," Alex said, Reggie nodding in agreement immediately. "For now, do you wanna go to the studio to be with Luke and Julie?" </p>
<p>Reggie nodded a bit. Alex stood up, Reggie following his actions. They poofed into the studio, seeing Julie and Luke on the couch. "Can- can we play cars, please?" Reggie stumbled over his words, his voice falling into a childlike one as he ran over to where they were sitting. </p>
<p>Luke glanced at Julie, who looked to Alex. They all seemed to make a silent agreement. Tonight was a little night. A chance for Alex to meet Little Reggie, and for Reggie to try regressing around him willingly. </p>
<p>He wasn't completely little yet, but he could be. The smallest thing could push him into his headspace right now. That wasn't a bad thing, though. He was feeling small <em>because</em> he felt safe. And feeling safe means more baby time. </p>
<p>That's simply <em>how it worked</em>. </p>
<p>Luke and Julie take care of Reggie, because they're good with kids and don't mind babysitting.  That's just how it worked. </p>
<p>Reggie regressed a lot, because it helped him. That's how it works. </p>
<p>Alex is supportive of his friends, because he cares about them. Fortunately for Reggie, that's how things worked. </p>
<p>Right now, things were working pretty well overall. All three of his closest friends were supportive of him, setting him up for a life where he can regress fairly openly. Plus, he'd get to talk to another little. He was pretty happy with the situation. </p>
<p>Let's just hope things stay that way. Let's hope that things continue going well and everyone stays happy.</p>
<p>But is<em> that</em> how things work? </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A/N: Haha spooky onimous endings are funny, especially when used in a fic genre that usually doesn't focus on plot/suspense. Have fun theorizing as I work on the next chapter.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Someone Who Cares [Chapter Ten]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Reggie is anxious and insecure, he hides out in the CD Shop, and he learns something important</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is sad, warning for Reggie kinda talking badly about himself. This is an important plot point that needed to happen at some point, might as well get it over with. I hope you guys like it!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Why're you pouting, Little Rockstar?"</p>
<p>Luke, Julie, and Alex sat side by side on the couch in the studio, Reggie previously busying himself with coloring at the coffee table. Julie let him use her old art supplies, crayons and markers and stickers, and do whatever he wanted. Now, he sat, tapping a red crayon rhythmically against his paper, holding it between two fingers. </p>
<p>With every tap, a red dot appeared on the paper. He seemed bored, and pouty, as Luke pointed out. He looked up to see all three of his friends staring at him. </p>
<p>"Not pouting." he mumbled, adjusting his crayon in his hand, interrupting the rhythm,  and drawing a little heart with it on the edge of the paper. </p>
<p>"Yeah you are. What's up, Flower?" Julie asked. </p>
<p>Alex looked at Julie curiously. "Flower?" he questioned. </p>
<p>"Pwetty as a flower," Reggie explained in his childish voice, not replying to Julie's question. He bit at his lip, switching out his crayon to another color. </p>
<p>Alex nodded, "That's cute."</p>
<p>Julie ignored Alex, still waiting for a response from the toddler-minded boy. Reggie looked up, "I'm fine," he whined, only pouting even more. Luke sighed, leaning forward a bit towards him. </p>
<p>"Come here, Reg," he ordered, patting his lap a bit. Reggie hesitantly jumped up, making his way over nervously, and sitting on his lap. He settled, feeling better as Luke wrapped his arms around his waist, holding him close. "You stopped pouting," Luke noticed. "Did you just want cuddles?" </p>
<p>Reggie blushed a bit, nodding as he casted his eyes down to Luke's hands around his waist. "You could've just asked, baby." Luke sighed, kissing the side of his head. Alex watched the whole scene, smiling a bit. Luke and Julie were really good with Reggie. </p>
<p>Julie and Reggie had a different bond then Luke and Reggie did, you could tell. Both were affectionate, and close. But still different. Reggie seemed to prefer playing with Luke, but usually requested affection from Julie. Julie was usually the one to correct his behavior if he needed it, while Luke was better at praise and compliments. </p>
<p>To Alex, someone who took care of Willie alone, it was interesting to see them work together. </p>
<p>Reggie and Willie hadn't talked yet, but there was a playdate scheduled for the next day. It had been around a week since Reggie told Alex, and not much had happened. There was no need for a long educational conversation on age regression, because Willie had already done that for him. </p>
<p>Reggie had been big besides a few quick moments the whole week due to an gig that took place the day prior, focusing on band rehearsals and such. This is where Reggie's internal struggle began. </p>
<p>When he found out and processed that Luke had cancelled band practice for him, he immediately felt bad about how much time Luke and Julie gave up for him. Luke and Julie had other, better things to do besides take care of him. Reggie used to go long periods of time without regressing, he didn't need it. </p>
<p>If Luke and Julie really knew what was going on, there'd be a lecture about repressing regression waiting for him. It wasn't like he was planning on telling him. </p>
<p>Today, Reggie didn't even count on slipping. He woke up small the morning after the gig, the regression probably being a result of a combination of things. He had just worked hard for a week or so to make sure everything turned out perfect. He also switched from almost daily regression to none at all, so eventually, it happened without his control. </p>
<p>Reggie didn't seem to realize it, but Julie and Luke were kinda relieved when he regressed. They had been kind of worried about the sudden decline of time in littlespace, and they missed taking care of him if they were honest. </p>
<p>But this internal struggle, of feeling guilty for needing help and extra care, was what caused Reggie's weird behavior. He wanted cuddles and attention but he didn't wanna waste anyone's time. But he was already small and being big felt so hard, and he knew that Luke and Julie weren't gonna leave him alone and not take care of him while he was little. </p>
<p>Well, there was one exception to the "not leaving him alone" rule. Nap time. </p>
<p>It wasn't a requirement that Reggie took naps every day. But sometimes, if he got sleepy, one of his friends would lay him down and come back half an hour later to wake him up. Sometimes, they'd stay with him and they'd cuddle. Others, he'd be left alone with a stuffie and lots of blankets while Luke helped Julie make herself a snack. </p>
<p>And if Reggie woke up before they came back to check on him, he'd play with a stuffie quietly until someone did. Today, when he woke up in Julie's bedroom, he did something different. </p>
<p>His decision was impulsive and not thought through. One moment, he was sitting in Julie's bed, feeling bad about everything. And the next, he was in CD Sundays, surrounded by a few toys. </p>
<p>
  <em>How had he gotten here?</em>
</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Reggie tried to play by himself. He really did. He used to do it all the time. </p>
<p>A few toy cars would entertain him for hours. But now, it seemed that occupying himself without a caregiver was impossible. But he kept trying. </p>
<p>He didn't need them. He was only wasting their time. </p>
<p>He got frustrated eventually, throwing the red toy car to the ground with a huff. A million questions seemed to take over his mind at once, overriding the childish, innocent, and playful thoughts that usually occupied his mind while he was small.  </p>
<p>Why wasn't this fun? When did he start crying? Why did he want a hug from Mama and Daddy so much right now? </p>
<p>These were to many questions for a baby. To many emotions. He needed them, he realized. Everything felt like to much without them. Taking care of himself was harder then he remembered. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"Where's Reggie?" Julie's panicked voice sounded as she ran out of her room and down the stairs. </p>
<p>"In your room?" Alex questioned from his spot on the living room couch, sitting up. Julie shook her head, </p>
<p>"He's gone. Is he hiding?" </p>
<p>Luke jumped up, running his fingers through his hair. "Maybe he woke up early and went to the studio?" He looked to Alex, who nodded. </p>
<p>"I'll check. You two, search the house."</p>
<p>They all agreed on roles, splitting up in an effort to find the little.</p>
<p>But when they came up empty handed, Julie became panicky, while Luke grew frustrated. Alex paced around the room, while Julie searched it, and Luke sat on the bed. "Who the hell decided to give a little teleportation powers?"</p>
<p>"An idiot." Julie replied. She had one thought lingering in the back of her mind that made her scared. <em>What if Caleb got him?</em></p>
<p>Yeah, it was unlikely that the evil ghost appeared in her house, took only Reggie, and left. But it was technically a possibility. A scary one, at that. </p>
<p>"He could be anywhere," Alex sighed. Luke ran his fingers through his hair, pausing. </p>
<p>"Technically, yes," He began, sitting up all the way. "But I know one place he used to go to while little." he realized, jumping up. </p>
<p>"I'm gonna go check somewhere. You guys just stay here in case he comes back, okay?" </p>
<p>Julie and Alex nodded, watching Luke poof out. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>"Baby!"</p>
<p>Reggie glanced up from his curled up position when he heard Luke's voice, revealing his teary face. He made grabby hands immediately, "Dada!" he whined. </p>
<p>Just like Luke had done around a month ago, he ran over and dropped down to sit next to him. He hugged him close, holding him in his arms tightly. "You scared the hell out of us, you know that?" he pulled away, taking a deep breath and he looked over Reggie's face. </p>
<p>"Sowwy, didn' mean to scawe anyone." Reggie mumbled with a sniffle, rubbing at his face. Add that to the list of thinks he felt guilty for.</p>
<p>"What are you doing here?" Luke questioned, looking around. He noticed the toy cars and his stuffed animal scattered over the floor, looking back to him. "You disappeared during your nap and came here? Why?"</p>
<p>"Felt bad. Didn' wanna waste your time." Reggie explained. </p>
<p>"What? You're not wasting my time-" he cut himself off, pausing. "I love taking care of you, and so does Julie. How long have you felt like this?"</p>
<p>"Y-you cancelled band practice," his voice became a little clearer as he managed to force himself into a slightly bigger headspace so that he could talk. "You and Juwie give up lots of time for me. You shouldn't have to."</p>
<p>"I know we don't <em>have</em> to, we do this because we want to. And because we care about you." Luke sighed, cupping the side of his face and wiping his tears with his thumb. "And you came here to be little by yourself?" </p>
<p>Reggie nodded. "I used to play by my m'self, a-and take care of m'self," he explained, bringing his thumb up to his lips. "<em>B-but it's to hard, Daddy</em>." he cried, his eyes glossing over as he began to sniffle and sob again. Any 'big' part of his mind slipped away as he cried, reaching out for Luke.  Luke opened his arms once more, allowing him to bury his head in his chest and snuggle into him. </p>
<p>"Shh, baby. I know," he swayed in place a bit, rubbing his back as he tried to help calm him down. "Little boys shouldn't have to take care of themselves. That's what Mommy's and Daddy's are for, Rockstar."</p>
<p>"I wish you would've talked to us before things got this bad," he spoke as Reggie pulled away, wiping at his eyes again. </p>
<p>"m' sowwy." Reggie muttered, bringing his thumb to his lip again. He felt a lot better now. He wasn't a waste of time, or annoying. He wasn't getting in the way of anything. Luke and Julie simply cared about him, so they liked caring for him. </p>
<p>That's just how it worked. </p>
<p>"Don't be. If this is anyone's fault, it's mine, for not talking to you when I thought something was wrong." Luke sighed, seemingly upset with himself. Reggie tilted his head curiously. "After regressing with Alex for the first time, you stopped regressing completely and avoided talking about it at all costs. Something felt off and I should've asked about it." Luke explained.</p>
<p>"It's okays!" he assured, settling his thumb into his mouth and speaking around it.</p>
<p>"Still. Talk to me next time you're feeling bad, okay? Or talk to Julie, just don't keep it inside. It'll build up to something like this eventually."</p>
<p>Reggie nodded. </p>
<p>"We're gonna clean up these toys and then go home, okay? We'll have a movie night and cuddle and talk more about this later, alright?" </p>
<p>Another nod. </p>
<p>They did exactly what Luke said they would. They picked up the toys and went home. Julie and Alex fussed over Reggie, hugging him and asking him if he was okay a million times over before helping Luke set up the laptop to play a movie for him. Luke explained to Julie what happened, and they agreed to actually talk to him about it later. </p>
<p>For now, they just needed some family time. Then when he was big, they'd talk it over. And the next day, they'd go have fun in the park. </p>
<p>Sometimes, things didn't always work the way Reggie wanted them to. He never wanted anyone to know about his regression. For a long time, he didn't want to be a little. Sometimes, the things he viewed as bad turned out good. </p>
<p>Luke finding out about him led to him feeling safer regressing, and adjusting to a cute family dynamic they were slowly building. Being little made him happy. Hiding in the CD Shop taught him that his friends cared about him, no matter how insecure or anxious he got. </p>
<p>And that lesson was one of the most important things he could learn. Remembering that he wasn't annoying, and that he had people there for him, was important. Not just important for him, but for anyone. </p>
<p>You have someone there for you, just like Reggie. Someone who cares about you, flaws and all.  And if you think you don't, then you'll find them soon. </p>
<p>Reggie was just lucky enough to find those people early on. </p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Please leave feedback in the comments! Do you like how I wrote this situation? This whole book is about Reggie adjusting to and accepting his headspace, and this was an important step. He knew that he had his friends, but he realized how much they really cared in this chapter. <br/>also I'm pretty sure this chapter makes the word count of this fic like 20,000 so that's cool!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>please comment on this and give me feedback! Let me know if you liked it, or if there's something you think I could do better? Also bookmark this if you want to be able to come back when I update again!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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